Astragalus columbianus Barneby (1964:649)
Columbia milk-vetch
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Conservation Status
Last record: 1883 (Ripley, 1975:42); 1922 (Sauer et al., 1979; Fertig, 2021:8)
Rediscovered in 1976 (Sauer et al., 1979; Li & Adair, 1997:124; Fertig, 2021:8)
The species' description was based upon two collections (1883 and 1922) (Sauer et al., 1979; Li & Adair, 1997). Previously considered probably Extinct ("prEX") (Ripley, 1975:42), or Extinct (Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, 1975 fide Sauer et al., 1979).
Distribution
Benton County & Yakima County, Columbia River, Washington, North America
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Barneby, Rupert. (1964). Astragalus columbianus. In: Atlas of North American Astragalus. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 13(2): 649-650.
Other references:
Ayensu, E. S. and Defilipps, R.A. (1978). Endangered and Threatened Plants of the United States: 1-403. Smithsonian Institution and WWF-US, Washington DC.
Daubenmire, R. (1970). Steppe vegetation of Washington. Wash. State Agric. Exp. Sta. Techn. Bull. 62: 1-131.
Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service. (1975). Threatened or Endangered Fauna or Flora. Federal Register 40(127): 27919.
Fertig, Walter. (2021). What Ever Happened to Taylor’s Draba? The Search for Historical and Extirpated Plants in Washington. Douglasia 45(1): 7-13.
Flora of North America Editorial Committee. (2023). Flora of North America North of Mexico 11(2): 543-1108. Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford.
Govaerts, R. (1995). World Checklist of Seed Plants 1(1, 2): 1-483, 529. MIM, Deurne.
Hitchcock, C. L. and Cronquist, A. (1973). Flora of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press, Seattle.
Humphreys, Aelys M., Govaerts, Rafaël, Ficinski, Sarah Z., Lughadha, Eimear Nic and Vorontsova, Maria S. (2019). Global dataset shows geography and life form predict modern plant extinction and rediscovery. Nature Ecology & Evolution 3: 1043-1047. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0906-2 [Supplementary Dataset 1]
Li, Shiyou and Adair, Kent T. (1997). Species Pools of Seed Plants in Eastern Asia and North America. Nacogdoches, Texas: AIthur Temple College of Forestry. [chapter 8: Species extinction, pp. 121-131]
POWO. (2025). Plants of the World Online (online resource). Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. Available at: https://powo.science.kew.org/ [Accessed 23 March 2025]
Ripley, S. Dillon. (1975). Report on endangered and threatened species of the United States. House Document 94-51: 1-200 [42].
Sauer, R. H., Mastrogiuseppe, J. D. and Smookler, R. H. (1979). Astragalus columbianus (Leguminosae) – rediscovery of an "extinct" species. Brittonia 31(2): 261-264. [Abstract]
Walter, Kerry S. and Gillett, Harriet J. (eds.). (1998). 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants. Compiled by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Gland, Switzerland & Cambridge, UK: IUCN – The World Conservation Union. lxiv + 862 pp.