E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

General:
Robust perennial herb from a spreading rhizome, greenish and nearly glabrous to greyish with basally 2-forked hairs; stems 1-few together, erect to decumbent, simple or branched above, 0.3-1 m tall.

Leaves:
Alternate, pinnately compound, 10-20 (35) cm long; leaflets 13 to 29, elliptic to oblong, blunt or notched and tiny-pointed at the tip, 1.5-4 cm long, often glabrous above; stipules membranous-papery, 6-15 mm long, some or all fused and sheathing at the base, the free ends lanceolate and long-tapering.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a spike-like, axillary raceme of 30 to 150, nodding, downward overlapping, pea-like flowers, the racemes 5-15 cm long on stalks 5-20 cm long; corollas greenish-white to cream, 12-17 mm long, the wings equal to the banner, the keel often purple-tipped; calyces 6-10 mm long, finely appressed-hairy, the tube twice as long as the awl-shaped teeth.

Fruits:
Pods, erect on stubs 1-2 mm long, crowded and persistent on the erect stalk of the inflorescence, cylindric, 8-20 mm long, with a tiny hook at the tip, somewhat leathery or stiff-papery, often finely appressed-hairy, 2-chambered.

Notes:
Three varieties are recognized for BC. The two varieties in S BC are sympatric and freely intergradient.

1. Pods cylindric, not grooved beneath and usually hairless; plants of NE BC..................... var. canadensis

1. Pods grooved beneath and usually hairy; plants of S BC.

2. Calyces white- and black-hairy; the teeth nearly equal in size, 1.5-3 mm long; plants greenish, not silvery-hairy...................... var. mortonii (Nutt.) S. Wats.

2. Calyces white-hairy, the teeth 1-2 mm long, the upper pair broader and shorter than the lower three; plants more or less silvery-hairy.....................var. brevidens (Gandog.) Barn.