Ascending Milkvetch

Astragalus laxmannii

Hosts 3 caterpillarsPollinator plantNitrogen fixer

Growing it

When	Flowers June to July; fruits August to September
Type	wildflower
Sun	Full sun
Water	Low
Soil	pH 6.5–8.5
Hardiness	zone 2–5
Mature height	0.4 m
Mature spread	0.75 m
Spacing	0.5 m
Years to maturity	4
Bloom	Jun–Jul
Flower colour	Purple not verified, a genus-level estimate
In bloom	June July
Fruit	Aug–Sep
Native to	AB, SK

feather-compound leaves about 10 cm long

Where it has been recorded

BothSpecimensObservations

216 squares of about 28 km, each holding at least one record. A square is not a claim that the plant grows throughout it, and an unshaded square is unrecorded rather than empty. Darker squares hold more records, which follows roads and towns as much as it follows the plant. 44 herbarium specimens and 565 field observations this project may redraw. A filled dot is a pressed sheet somebody can re-examine; a hollow ring is a photograph identified by community agreement. Where the dots are dense is where people have looked, not where the plant is commonest, and empty ground is unsurveyed rather than unoccupied. How this map is made.

Which ecoregions the records fall in

Mixed Grassland south AB / SK: 207 records, high confidence
Aspen Parkland central AB / SK: 161 records, high confidence
Moist Mixed Grassland south AB / SK: 155 records, high confidence
Northern Continental Divide south AB: 143 records, high confidence
Fescue Grassland south AB: 102 records, high confidence
Eastern Continental Ranges central AB: 62 records, high confidence
Cypress Upland south AB / SK: 51 records, high confidence
Western Alberta Upland central AB: 33 records, high confidence
Boreal Transition central AB / SK: 12 records, medium confidence
Peace Lowland north AB: 10 records, medium confidence
Mid-Boreal Uplands central AB / SK: 7 records, low confidence
Slave River Lowland north AB: 3 records, low confidence

These are counts of records collected somewhere in the region, which is the resolution of the evidence: the map above shows where inside it. A region with 3 records is not the same claim as one with three hundred, so the count travels with the region. A region missing from this list means nobody has recorded it there, which is not the same as the plant being absent. Records within 900 m of a border count for neither side, because the border is not drawn finely enough to say which one they are on. Source: GBIF occurrence search + PRESERVED_SPECIMEN pass, retrieved 2026-08-24. Boundaries digitised from the National Ecological Framework for Canada v2.2 (Ecological Stratification Working Group 1995), simplified to about 900 m for display: an outline is accurate to roughly a kilometre, not to the metre. How these counts are made.

See every observation, live and current, on GBIF or iNaturalist.

Documented animals

13 documented relationships.

nectar for

Bumblebee-like Digger Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Central Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Hunt's Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Megachile melanophaea LaManna et al. 2020
Melissa Blue LaManna et al. 2020
Nevada Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Osmia albolateralis LaManna et al. 2020
Osmia densa LaManna et al. 2020
Plebejus saepiolus LaManna et al. 2020
Yellow-fronted Bumble Bee LaManna et al. 2020

caterpillar host for

Clouded Sulphur Acorn & Sheldon 2006
Silvery Blue Acorn & Sheldon 2006
Western Tailed-Blue Acorn & Sheldon 2006

Also worth knowing

Safety

Low toxicity to pets

Buying it

About $8–$16 per plant (estimate), usually from a native-plant nursery. Estimate (herb default); AB retail as of 2026

Where these numbers came from

Flower detail: not verified, a genus-level estimate