Scarlet Milkvetch
Astragalus coccineus
Family: Fabaceae
This gorgeous plant is well-known from the Mojave desert and only gets about a foot wide and less than that tall. This is a perennial plant but reseeds in the landscape.
It wants full sun, but very good drainage and moderate to low water. It’s not very hardy, it should be protected from frost.
Photo by Colin Barrows, iNaturalist
Astragalus coccineus on SEINET
A very good hummingbird plant, this species is also a larval host for numerous butterflies, including the painted lady (Vanessa cardui), acmon blue (Icaricia acmo), orange sulphur (Colias eurytheme), silvery blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus), silver-spotted skipper (Epargyreus clarus), and melissa blue (Plebejus melissa). There are other perennial (and annual) species of Astragalus that are worth growing.
The generic name, Astragalus, is a Greek word for the anklebone, which probably refers in some way to the fruits (pods). Coccineus simply means “scarlet” or “bright red,” referring to the bright red flowers.
Native to gravelly places, generally sagebrush scrub, pinyon woodland, deserts, scrub, and chaparral of the Southwestern United States in Arizona, California, and Nevada, and in northwestern Mexico, 2100-8000 ft.