With erect stems and densely woolly throughout, this plant has crowded spikes of yellow, pea-like flowers on stems that can reach 3-feet tall. Note the cylindrical, yellow flowers, silvery foliage, and  hairless, oval pods.

FLOWERS: Spring–summer. Drooping, pale-yellow flowers, 3/8–5/8-inch (10-15 mm) long with an upright banner, 2 wings, and a keel in the middle; flowers around upper end of leafless stem. Fruit is an inflated, erect, plump, oval pod, 1/2–1-inch long (15–25 mm), 3/8–1/2-inch (8–12 mm) diameter, hairless, with a rounded base and pointed tip.

LEAVES: Alternate. Blade pinnately compound, 5–13 3/4-inches long (13–35 cm); 17–25 silky-hairy, elliptic leaflets 3/8–2-inches long (10–55 mm), opposite or nearly so along the midrib, both sides densely hairy, tips pointed.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly, loam soils, roadsides; pinion-juniper woodland openings in White, Gallinas, Sacramento mountains.

ELEVATION: 7,000-9,400 feet.

RANGE: NM, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: 75+ species of Astragalus in NM. The only other yellow-flowered species in Sacramento Mountains is the rare Tall Milkvetch, A. altus, reaching 4 1/2 feet tall and only sparsely hairy. Another large species, Stinking Milkvetch, A. praelongus, nearly statewide in selenium-rich arid soils, is nearly hairless with drooping yellow flowers, gray-green leaves, and a strong, fetid odor.

NM COUNTIES: Southern NM mountains in mid- to high-elevation habitats: Chaves, Eddy, Lincoln, Otero, Socorro, Torrance.