General: Perennial herb from a slender taproot; stems decumbent, 10-80 cm long, branched, often rhizomatous, glabrous.
Leaves: Basal and alternate along the stem, palmately compound; leaflets 3, oblanceolate to oblong-egg-shaped, pointed to rounded at the tip, 1-3 cm long, the margins finely toothed; stipules lanceolate, 1-4 cm long, ragged-margined and with long-pointed tips.
Flowers: Inflorescence a dense, globe-shaped, stalked, axillary head of 2 to 60, erect or spreading, pea-like flowers, the heads 2-3 cm thick, set in wheel-like, 1- to 2-cm wide, jaggedly many-lobed involucres; corollas reddish to purple, sometimes white-tipped, 10-18 mm long; calyces glabrous, 7-11 mm long, the 10-veined tube equal to the 5 awl-shaped, bristle-tipped teeth.
Wet to moist meadows, tidal marshes, streambanks, beaches and dunes in the lowland and steppe zones; common along the BC coast, rare in SC BC; S to ID, CO, UT, NM, CA and MX.
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)
