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General: Annual or biennial herb from a taproot, sweet-scented in drying; stems erect, 0.5-2 m tall, freely branched, fine short-hairy to glabrous.
Leaves: Alternate, pinnately compound; leaflets 3, oblong-elliptic to egg-shaped, 1-4 cm long, short-hairy to glabrous, the margins fine-toothed to the base; stipules entire or lobed, 5-10 mm long, joined at the base to the leaf stalk.
Flowers: Inflorescence a slender, spike-like, axillary raceme of 20 to 50 or more pea-like flowers, the racemes 5-20 cm long on stalks from shorter to longer than the leaves; corollas white, 4-5 mm long, the banner longer than the wings; calyces bell-shaped, 2-3.5 mm long, the narrowly lanceolate teeth nearly equal to the tube.
Fruits: Pods, egg-shaped, somewhat flattened but still plump, nodding, 3-6 mm long, somewhat leathery, glabrous, net-veined, 1-chambered; seeds 1 or 2.
Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia
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