General: Perennial herb from a taproot surmounted by a superficial root-crown or short-branching stem-base; stems several to many, tufted, decumbent to erect, 10-40 cm.
Leaves: Alternate, pinnately compound, 4-15 cm long; leaflets 9 to 23, narrowly oblong to elliptic, 1-3 cm long, appressed-hairy; stipules papery, fused
Flowers: Inflorescence a dense, head-like or spike-like, axillary raceme of 15 to 50 short-stalked, ascending, pea-like flowers, the raceme-stalks 5-15 cm long; corollas white to purplish, 12-18 mm long, the banner 1-3 mm longer than the wings, which are 2-3 mm longer than the keel; cal yces 5-10 mm long, appressed-hairy with mixed black and white hairs, the awl-shaped teeth from 1/3 as long to as long as the tube.
Fruits: Pods, cylindric to narrowly egg-shap ed, unstalked or on stalks to 1.5 mm long, erect, membranous, 7-12 mm long, densely appressed-hairy, deeply grooved on one side
Mesic to dry grasslands, grassy bluffs, open gravelly flats, river terraces and rocky slopes in the steppe and montane zones; infrequent in E BC; amphiberingian, N to YT, E to ON and S to MN, NM and WA;
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
