Astragalus wilmottianus

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Common name

Scientific name

Astragalus wilmottianus Stoj.

Conservation status and threats

The species is PROTECTED in Bulgaria by the Biodiversity Act - it is prohibited to "picking, collecting, cutting, uprooting or any other manner of destruction of specimens in their natural range in the wild", as well as "possession, keeping, movement, transport, export, trade and offering for sale or exchange of specimens taken in the wild". These bans apply to "all stages of life of the plants"¹.

Listed in the Red Data Book of Bulgaria to the category "Endangered"².

Description and identification

Perennial tufted plant.

Stems shortened, branched.

Leaves imparipinnate with 4–6 pairs of hispid leaflets.

Flowers in few-flowered compact racemes, subsessile.

Calyx up to 1 cm long.

Petals pink or rarely white, 15–30 mm long.

Fruit ovate, inflated legume.

Flowering May-June³.

Habitat

Open grasslands and shrub communities in dry stony calcareous places on shallow soils, between 600–900 m alt. Populations are of low number of individuals⁴.

Habitat of Astragalus wilmottianus in Mount Chepan:

Distribution in Bulgaria

Sofia region (Ponor village), Znepole region (Zemenska Mt, Golo Burdo Mt, Chepun Mt, Slivnitsa district). Some of the localities (in Slivnitsa district and Golo Burdo) have not been confirmed during the last years⁵.

General distribution

Balkan Peninsula (Bulgaria, Serbia, North Macedonia). The main part of the population of the species is within the Bulgarian territory⁶.

References

1 Bulgarian Biodiversity Act in english.

2 Boris Assyov, Cvetomir M. Denchev. 2015. In: Red Data Book of the Republic of Bulgaria. Volume 1 - Plants & Fungi.

3 Boris Assyov, Cvetomir M. Denchev. 2015. In: Red Data Book of the Republic of Bulgaria. Volume 1 - Plants & Fungi.

4 Boris Assyov, Cvetomir M. Denchev. 2015. In: Red Data Book of the Republic of Bulgaria. Volume 1 - Plants & Fungi.

5 Boris Assyov, Cvetomir M. Denchev. 2015. In: Red Data Book of the Republic of Bulgaria. Volume 1 - Plants & Fungi.

6 Boris Assyov, Cvetomir M. Denchev. 2015. In: Red Data Book of the Republic of Bulgaria. Volume 1 - Plants & Fungi.

Astragalus wilmottianus на български

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