Astragalus aleppicus, Astragalus feinbruniae, Astragalus galilaeus,
Astragalus gileadensis, Astragalus postii, Aleppo milk-vetch,
Hebrew: קדד פיינברון, Arabic: القتاد الحلبي

Scientific name:  Astragalus aleppicus Boiss.
Synonym name:  Astragalus feinbruniae Eig,
Astragalus galilaeus Freyn & Bornm.,
Astragalus gileadensis Eig,
Astragalus postii Eig
Common name:  Aleppo milk-vetch
Hebrew name:  קדד פיינברון
Arabic name:  القتاد الحلبي
Family:  Fabaceae or Papilionaceae, Legume/Pea Family, הפרפרניים

Astragalus aleppicus, Astragalus feinbruniae,  Astragalus galilaeus, Astragalus gileadensis, Astragalus postii, Aleppo milk-vetch,القتاد الحلبي , קדד פיינברון
Location: Pura Nature Reserve

Life form:  Hemicryptophyte
Stems:  Not climbing
Leaves:  Alternate, compound, pinnate, leaflets 12-25 pairs, ovate to orbicular, smooth margin; stipules lanceolate to linear-subulate
Inflorescence:  Racemes sessile, 1-4-flowered
Flowers:  Peduncles 4-7mm long, bracts 18-22mm long, calyx 20-22mm long, teeth 2-5mm long, corolla whitish to yellow, teeth lanceolate-subulate, one-third as long as tube; keel somewhat longer than wings
Fruits / pods:  Legume 25-35 x 15-20 mm, ovoid Pods pubescent deflexed, oblong, flattened, netted-wrinkled, ending in a straight beak
Flowering Period:  March, April, May
Habitat:  Shrub-steppes
Distribution:  Mediterranean Woodlands and Shrublands, Semi-steppe shrublands, Shrub-steppes
Chorotype:  Irano-Turanian
Summer shedding:  Ephemeral

Astragalus aleppicus, Astragalus feinbruniae,  Astragalus galilaeus, Astragalus gileadensis, Astragalus postii, Aleppo milk-vetch, קדד פיינברון
Location: Pura Nature Reserve


Derivation of the botanical name:
Astragalus, ἀστραγαλος, literally signifies a huckle bone (talus), a small bone of the ankle; astragalus, which the Greeks, as well as the Romans, used for dice and other purposes and an early name applied to some plants in this family, with vertebra-like knotted roots.
aleppicus of Halab (Aleppo), N Syria.
feinbruniae, for Naomi Feinbrun-Dothan (1900 – 1995), an Israeli botanist.
galilaeus, of Galilee.
gileadensis, of Gilead.
postii, named in honour of the American botanist George Edward Post (1838–1909).
The Hebrew word: קדד, kedad, related to Akkadian (the earliest attested Semitic language; qadādu (= to lean, bend, incline), from Arabic qudad.
  • The standard author abbreviation Eig is used to indicate Alexander Eig (1894 – 1938), a botanist, one of the first plant researchers in Israel, head of department for Botanics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and co-founder of Jerusalem Botanical Gardens on Mount Scopus.
  • The standard author abbreviation Freyn is used to indicate Josef Franz Freyn (1845 – 1903), an Austrian civil engineer and botanist.
  • The standard author abbreviation Bornm. is used to indicate Joseph Friedrich Nicolaus Bornmüller (1862 – 1948), a German botanist.

Astragalus aleppicus, Astragalus feinbruniae,  Astragalus galilaeus, Astragalus gileadensis, Astragalus postii, Aleppo milk-vetch, קדד פיינברון
Location: Pura Nature Reserve