Click to read about the Astragalus genus.

Semi-desert.  Rock and sand openings.  Spring.
The Hogback, New Mexico, April 24, 2007.

This masterpiece is known only from a small area near Mesa Verde National Park.  It grows in sands and gravels collected in the joints of large slabs of sandstone.  It is as sweet to smell as it is enchantingly lovely to look at.

Asa Gray described this plant and Townshend Brandegee named it in 1876 after Brandegee found it "growing upon sandstone-rock of the Mesa Verde, near the edge of the Mancos Canon".  After Brandegee recorded it in 1876, it was not found again until the 1970s.  "Humillimus" means "very humble".

Range map © John Kartesz,
Floristic Synthesis of North America

State Color Key

Species present in state and native
Species present in state and exotic
Species not present in state

County Color Key

Species present and not rare
Species present and rare
Species extirpated (historic)
Species extinct
Species noxious
Species exotic and present
Native species, but adventive in state
Eradicated
Questionable presence

Range map for Astragalus humillimus