General: Annual herb from a taproot; stems 1 to several, decumbent to erect, glabrous, 10-60 cm long/tall.
Leaves: Alternate, palmately compound; leaflets 3, heart- or egg-shaped to oblanceolate, 5-20 mm long, the margins finely bristle-toothed; stipules egg-shaped, the upper deeply cut.
Flowers: Inflorescence a dense, head-like cluster of 3 to 5 pea-like flowers, the heads 1-2 cm wide, on stalks longer than the leaves, set in wheel-like, irregularly lobed and jaggedly toothed involucres; corollas purple with white tips and brown with age, 5-10 mm long; calyces slightly shorter than the corollas, the tube narrowly bell-shaped, 10- to 25-veined, the teeth longer than the tube, awl-shaped and bristle-tipped.
Fruits: Pods, usually rupturing the calyx when mature; seeds 1 to 2.
If more than one illustration is
available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two
subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below.
Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.
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)
Vernally moist to dry, often sandy, fields, grassy meadows, roadsides, ditches and clearings in the lowland zone; locally frequent in SW BC, rare in SC BC; S to MT, UT and CA.
