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

General:
Perennial herb from a taproot and branching stem-base covered with remains of old leaf-stalks and stipules; cushion-tufted, 1-5 cm high.

Leaves:
Basal, odd-pinnately compound, 1-5 cm long; leaflets 9 to 25, linear to oblong, 2-8 mm long, silky-hairy, the margins often rolled under; stipules 4-10 mm long, papery, fused and joined to the leaf-stalk for 2/3 of their length, the free margins fringed with bristly hairs.

Flowers:
Inflorescence of 1 to 3 (commonly 2) pea-like flowers on a spreading to erect, 1- to 5-cm long stalk; corollas purple, 11-16 mm long; calyces long-soft-hairy, 2/3 the length of the corolla, the teeth lanceolate, 1/3 the length of the tube.

Fruits:
Pods, egg-shaped, bladdery-inflated, papery, 1.5-3 cm long, sparsely hairy, on stalks 2-5 cm long, short-beaked.