Astragalus bisulcatus
Commonly known as the Two-grooved milkvetch
Taxonomy
Scientific name: Astragalus bisulcatus (Hook.) A. Gray
Family: Fabaceae
Common names: Two-grooved milkvetch
Astragalus bisulcatus(Hook.)A.Gray forms dense, bush-like masses as much as two feet high and five feet wide. It is perennial dicot native plant and has C3 photosynthetic pathway.
Two-grooved milkvetch distributes in the Mixed Grass Prairie, parkland region, and foothills east of the Rocky Mountains from southern Canada to northern New Mexico, and in scattered localities from eastern Idaho to the Colorado and Green River Basins of southwestern Wyoming, western Colorado, and central and southwestern Utah.
In Utah, elevation Rang is from 1,460 to 2,580 meters. Flowers are deep purplish blue, tubular and lipped, with five petals and five shorter sepals, and are 11-15 mm long. It grows on the rich selenium soil so two-grooved milkvetch accumulates selenium by absorbing from these soils, which produce fatal poisoning of livestock. According to the research, 0.9Kg of two-grooved milkvetch can kill a mature cow. Clinical symptom of selenium poisoning is different depends on the livestock.
Despite the unpleasant effects of Astragalus poisoning (selenium), the selenium is also known to be a potent anti-carcinogen. David E. Salt, professor of plant molecular physiology at Purdue University announced that it may be possible to invent functional foods that have cancer-fighting properties from this plant.
