General: Perennial herb from a taproot and branching stem-base; stems usually ascending to erect but decumbent-based, sometimes prostrate on harsh sites, 20-70 cm tall/long, with short, stiff, appressed, unbranched hairs or nearly glabrous.
Leaves: Alternate, pinnately compound, 5-12 cm long; leaflets 7 to 19, narrowly egg-shaped to oblong, rounded or notched at the tip, 1-3 cm long, glabrous above, paler and short-hairy on the lower surface; stipules egg-shaped, 4-7 mm long, the lower ones joined and clasping the stem.
Flowers: Inflorescence a loose, axillary raceme of 6 to 25 or more pea-like flowers mostly on one side of the axis, the raceme-stalks 9-23 cm long, longer than the leaves; corollas whitish or yellowish to pale purple, fading bluish, 6-11 mm long, the banner much longer than the wings, which are longer than the keel; calyces bell-shaped, 4-7 mm long, short-black-hairy, the lance-linear teeth 1/4-1/2 the length of the tube.
Fruits: Pods, narrowly ellipsoid, spreading to drooping, short-stalked, membranous, black-hairy, 1.5-2.5 cm long, compressed, 1-chambered but with a thin partial partition.
Moist to mesic meadows, streambanks, gravel bars, rocky slopes and forest openings in the steppe and montane zones, rarely to the alpine zone; frequent in BC S of 52degreeN and east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains; N to AK, YT and NT, E to SW AB and S to CO, NV and N 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)