Purple milk vetch
Astragalus danicus
This attractive member of the pea family has dense flower heads of blue-purple flowers. It is a low growing native perennial herb with hairy pinnate leaves and dark brown pea pods that are covered with white hairs. It grows in short vegetation in unimproved grasslands on lime rich soils and sand dunes. It has an easterly distribution.
National populations were stable until 1930, since when it has declined substantially on the chalk of southeast England and limestone in northeast England, largely because of agricultural improvement and a lack of grazing by stock. Populations elsewhere are regarded as stable at the present. In the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, purple milk vetch is a priority species. The ‘Vascular Plant Red Data List for Great Britain’ in 2005 lists it as endangered because of a reduction in population size (extent of occurrence and/or quality of habitat) of more that 50% over the last 10 years.
In the Tees Valley it grows in the sand dunes and coastal grassland along the coast of the Lower Tees Valley. Past records indicate its presence at Seaton Dunes and Common, Hart Warren Dunes. South Gare, North Gare, Coatham Dunes, The Stray Redcar and Coatham Marsh Nature Reserve. These sites are being resurveyed for the species in 2008.
