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Fabaceae family

Mancos Milkvetch Astragalus humillimus

Native Specialist-bee host

Mancos Milkvetch is a perennial shrub native to the lower 48 states. A host for pollen-specialist native bees.

More about this plant

Astragalus humillimus is a rare species of milkvetch known by the common name Mancos milkvetch. It is native to a small section of the Four Corners region of the United States, where it can be found in Montezuma County, Colorado, and San Juan County, New Mexico. There are about nine small, localized populations on sandstone rimrock ledges on the mesas. The plant occurs in a region that is being developed for oil and gas exploration, and altered by associated activities such as road construction and pipeline installation. It is a federally listed endangered species. Wikipedia →

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
Hardiness
≥ zone 7 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Lifespan
Perennial
In the garden
Shrub layer — Sits in the shrub of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts ~15 caterpillar species

Astragalus supports ~15 caterpillar species.

Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a moderate genus.

Recorded feeding on Astragalus in North America, including:

Argyrotaenia franciscana · Orange Tortrix Autographa californica · Alfalfa Looper Moth Colias alexandra · Queen Alexandra's Sulphur Colias boothii · white / sulphur butterfly Colias christina · Christina Sulphur Colias eurytheme · Orange Sulphur
+ 8 more species →
Colias hecla · Hecla Sulphur Colias meadii · Mead's Sulphur Colias nastes · Labrador Sulphur Colias occidentalis · Western Sulphur Colias philodice · Clouded Sulphur Dicymolomia julianalis · Julia's Dicymolomia Epargyreus clarus · skipper butterfly Erynnis baptisiae · Wild Indigo Duskywing
Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).
✦ Bees specialist-bee host

Specialist native bees depend on it.

Some native bees are pollen specialists (oligolectic) — they raise young only on pollen from particular plant genera. Astragalus is a recorded specialist-bee host, so losing it can mean losing the bee that relies on it.

Xerces pollinator conservation →
Specialist hosts from Smith et al. 2024.
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
Sources for this entry (14) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — native status
[07] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
[08] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts · Smith et al. 2024 (CC BY)
[09] Conservation rank — NatureServe Explorer (CC BY)
[10] Federal ESA status — USFWS ECOS (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)
[11] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[12] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[13] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
[14] County range — GBIF Open Data — open-licensed occurrences (CC0/CC-BY) → county
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