Juvenile Utah milkvetch - January growth

Description:

Upside down weather patterns have confused some native plant species into thinking that perhaps spring is here. Astragalus utahensis (Torr.) Torr. & Gray. January 5, 2012, Salt Lake County foothills, Olympus Hills Park, approx. 4860 ft. elev. The plant with the reddish leaf to the right is naturalized Erodium cicutarium, probably non-native but has been in the area for probaby at least 200 years.