General: Annual herb from a taproot; stems decumbent or climbing, 30-70 cm long/tall, slender, glabrous to sparsely stiff-hairy.
Leaves: Alternate, pinnately compound; leaflets 4 to 12, linear to narrowly oblong-elliptic, rounded but abruptly pointed at the tip, 10-25 mm long; tendrils well developed, unbranched, grasping; stipules 2-4 mm long, linear, usually with a basal tooth.
Flowers: Inflorescence an axillary raceme of 1-3 pea-like flowers, at the tips of long thread-like stalks; corollas lavender to bluish-white, 4-6 mm long; calyx-teeth unequal in size, the upper short-triangular, the lower linear-lanceolate and as long as the tube.
Fruits: Pods, oblong, flattened, the tip rounded and abruptly short-pointed on one side, glabrous, 1-1.5 cm long; seeds 4 to 5.
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.
Mesic to dry roadsides, fields, clearings and waste places in the lowland zone; infrequent on SE Vancouver Island and adjacent islands and the lower mainland; introduced from Eurasia.
