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

General:
Perennial herb from a branched, woody stem-base and thick, fibrous taproot; stems decumbent to ascending, 10-60 cm long/tall, sometimes branched above, greyish stiff-hairy.

Leaves:
Alternate, odd-pinnate, hairy on both sides to glabrous on the upper surface, minutely gland-dotted above, 3-12 cm long on short stalks; leaflets 9 to 15, oblong to lance-elliptic, thick and firm with lateral veins usually not evident, 10-40 mm long, 3-14 mm wide, abruptly sharp-pointed at the tip; stipules straw-coloured, leathery, distinct or shortly joined below, 5-10 mm long.

Flowers:
Inflorescence an axillary raceme of 5 to 50 pea-like, erect or spreading flowers, the racemes at first compact but soon elongating, 2-15 cm long on curved, arching stalks; corollas pink to reddish-purple,10-22 mm long, the wing-lobes broad and much shorter than the claw; calyces bell-shaped, stiff-hairy, the tube 2-3 mm long, the teeth slender, nearly equal, 2.5-5 mm long.

Fruits:
Pods, constricted between the seeds into (1) 2 to 6 segments, the segments oval or circular, 5-8 mm long, 4-7 mm wide, hairy, corrugated with ladder-like ridges, not wing-margined.

Notes:
Two intergrading subspecies are recognized in BC.

1. Flowers 10-19 mm long, pink to reddish-purple; racemes open, 8-23 cm long................... ssp. Boreale

1. Flowers 15-22 mm long, usually deep reddish-purple; racemes compact, 2-10 cm long................... ssp. mackenzii (Richards.) Welsh