Japanese name: モメンヅル（木綿蔓） Scientific name:Astragalus reflexistipulus
[Overview]
A perennial growing in grasslands and similar places in the mountains.
The stem creeps along the ground at the base, and the upper part rises to a height of 30–80 cm.
The leaves are alternate and odd-pinnately compound, with 13–19 leaflets.
The leaflets are ovate to oblong, 2–5 cm long and 1–2.5 cm wide, with entire margins and sparse white hairs on the underside.
Narrowly ovate stipules 5–8 mm long are present.
From the leaf axils, racemes 2–4 cm long on flower stalks 3–10 cm long extend and densely bear 8–15 flowers.
The flowers are pea-shaped, 12–13 mm long, and yellow to yellowish white.
The lowest calyx lobe is longer than the calyx tube, and the bract is half the length of the calyx lobes.
The fruit is a legume of slender cylindrical shape, 3.5–5 cm long and about 4 mm wide, borne pointing upward, with a beak-like pointed tip, and contains many seeds.
[Notes]
The Japanese name is said to derive from the fact that the underground stems and roots split easily into fibers.
