Astracantha echinus (DC.) Podlech
Astragalus echinus DC., A. libanoticus Boiss.
Eng.: Milkvetch. Fre.: Astragale. Ara. (Egypt): Qadass.
Subshrub up to 50(70) cm in height, spiny, hermaphrodite, often cushion-shaped, with very intricate stems. Leaves alternate, grouped at the end of the branchlets, 2-4 cm, paripinnate; with stipules 5-7 mm, triangular, membranous, hardened, glabrous; with woody petiole; rachis ending in a spine; with 4-7 pairs of leaflets, 2.6 × 1.5 mm, elliptic, mucronate —sometimes sharp —, covered by applied hairs. Inflorescence in racemes, capituliform or glomeruliform, compact, located on the upper 2 cm of the branchlets. Calyx 7-8 mm, with teeth of the same the length as the tube, densely villous. Corolla c. 1.5 cm, papilionoid, whitish, with marked purple venation on the standard, persistent. Androecium diadelphous. Ovary sessile, unilocular. Pod 5-6 mm, densely villous, included in the persistent calyx, with 1 seed.
Flowering:
April to May(July).
Fruiting:
June to September.
Habitat:
Mediterranean thickets in high mountains, on various types of terrain, volcanic, schistose, etc., between 1,000-2,500 m.
Distribution:
Eastern Mediterranean species present in the Sinai Peninsula, Palestine, (Mount Hermon and Edom), Syria, Lebanon and Cyprus.
Conservation status:
A rare but widely distributed species, not considered threatened. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the Red List of vascular plants of Egypt (Flora Aegyptiaca Vol 1, 2000) it is listed as “Rare”.