General: Perennial herb from a branched, somewhat rhizomatous stem-base; stems erect, up to 1.5 m tall, generally unbranched, cylindric-hollow at the base, usually nearly glabrous but sometimes soft- or stiff-hairy.
Leaves: Basal (a few) and alternate along the stem, palmately compound, the stalks of the basal leaves often much longer than those of the stem leaves; leaflets 9 to 17, elliptic-oblanceolate, pointed at the tip, 3-12 cm long, glabrous above, sparsely stiff-hairy below.
Flowers: Inflorescence a dense, stalked, terminal raceme, up to 40 cm long, of whorled or somewhat scattered, pea-like flowers; corollas bluish to violet, glabrous, 11-16 mm long, the banner nearly circular and slightly shorter than the wings; calyces about equally 2-lipped, both lips entire or minutely toothed.
Fruits: Pods, curved, densely long-soft-hairy, 3-5 cm long; seeds 6 to 10, greyish with dark mottling.
Moist to mesic meadows, riverbars, streambanks, seashores, clearings, roadsides, glades and open forests in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; frequent in SW, SC and WC BC, less frequent northward; N to SE AK and S to ID and CA.
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)
