General: Perennial herb from a creeping rhizome; stems erect to trailing, 15-100 cm tall/long, angled but not winged, soft-hairy.
Leaves: Alternate, pinnately compound with 4 to 10 mostly paired leaflets; leaflets narrowly egg-shaped to lance-elliptic, 2-12 cm long, 0.2-3 cm wide; tendrils usually well developed and branched, at least some grasping; stipules 2-lobed, lanceolate to linear, less than 1/2 as long as the leaflets.
Flowers: Inflorescence a loose, stalked, axillary cluster of 2 to 7 pea-like flowers; corollas usually bluish-purple or reddish-purple, fading to tan, 13-27 mm long, the banner darker than the wings or keel, about as long as the wings and 1-3 mm longer than the keel, the banner-claw shorter than the blade; calyces 6-12 mm long, somewhat hairy, the lanceolate teeth about 1/2 as long as the tube.
Fruits: Pods, 3-7 cm long, 4-9 mm wide, glabrous; seeds 4 to 12.
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)
Mesic to dry, open forests (deciduous, coniferous, and mixed), glades and meadows in the lowland and montane zones; common in C (between 52o and 56o N) and SW BC, locally frequent in SC and SE BC, absent on the Queen Charlotte Islands, N Vancouver Island and the adjacent coast; S to CA.
