Wild Liquorice Astragalus glycyphyllos




Scientific Name: Astragalus glycyphyllos (Fabaceae).

English Name: Wild Liquorice, Wild Licorice, Liquorice Milk-vetch (Pea family).

French Name: Astragale à feuilles de réglisse (='liquorice leaved milk-vetch').


5 Key Characters:
  • quite large sprawling plant (up to a metre high and wide).
  • stems kinked.
  • flowers greenish cream, in slightly elongated oval bunches.
  • oval leaves in 4 - 6 pairs.
  • prefers calcareous soil.

Lookalikes: Other cream pea flowers perhaps if you are a beginner, but nothing else really has the same combination of colour and form.

Habitat: Woodland, scrub, calcareous grassland. Its preferred habitat is lightly grazed unimproved grassland and hay meadows.

Flowering Period: May-June-July-August.

Status: Widespread but in decline because of modern farming methods.

Photographed by Loire Valley Nature:

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