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 Leaves Patrick Alexander @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) |  Plants Patrick Alexander @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) | | | | |
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Origin:
Native
Life Cycle:
Annual
General Desc:
Often much branched, erect to spreading annual with multiple basal stems; fern-like leaves to 4 inches long have 21 to 35 leaflets per leaf; tiny butterfly-like flowers grow in dense 3 inch cylindric spikes at the stem tips blooming from the bottom up.
Identification notes: Annual; stems erect, branch above the middle; leaves pinnately compound, 21 to 35 leaflets; flowers in cylindrical spikes, white, blue or pinkish-purple, pea flower shape of banner, wings and keel; bracts hairy on the margins and base; sepals not hairy.
Height:
To about 3 feet
Habitat Description: Prairies, open woods such as oak and pineforest, streambanks and lake margins, edges of fields, along irrigation ditches and highways, roadsides, waste areas, disturbed alluvial soils (fertile soil deposited by water flowing in river beds).
Plant Communities:
Pinyon Juniper Woodland, Montane Conifer Forest, Riparian, Disturbed Areas
Elevation: 5500 - 8000 feet
Color:
White, blue or pinkish-purple
Shape:
Irregular in elongated clusters
Tubular:
Y
Flowering Period:
Jun - Oct
Description:
Flower has 5 petals; upper banner petal is the largest, 2 side wing petals and 2 boat-shaped bottom keel petals are both about 1/2 as long as the banner. Leaf-like bracts below the flower have silky, long, hairs making the flower spike resemble a foxtail.
Leaf Color:
Green
Leaf Type:
Compound
Leaf Shape:
Round or oval
Leaf Margin:
Smooth
Leaf Attachment:
Alternate
Leaves Clasp:
N
Hairs:
No
Spines:
N
Leaf Description:
Smooth stems except for scattered glands in the upper plant. 21 to 35 leaflets, 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, oblong to egg-shaped, hairless, often stalkless, may be red-tinged, lighter green and gland dotted on the lower surface and have round to squared tips.
Fruit Color: Brown
Fruit Type: Pod
Fruit Notes: Fruit is a small, papery, dry, 1 to 2-seeded pod with a reverse egg-shape to about 1/8 inch long. It is hairy near the top and contained within the outer leaf-like sepals beneath it. Pod opens at maturity to release its seed(s).
Seed Notes: Seeds are about 1/16 inch long, shiny, smooth and brown.
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