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 Leaves |  Plant Max Licher @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) |  Fruit Max Licher @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) | | | |
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Origin:
Native
Life Cycle:
Annual or perennial
General Desc:
A tufted, grayish, hairy plant with pinnately compound leaves and lavender, pink, or red-violet pea flowers in somewhat elongated flower clusters.
Identification notes: Crescent milkvetch can be distinguished by its pod, which has only 1 chamber and a lower seam that lies in a groove rather than forming a prominent ridge, is 4 to 5 times as long as wide and sickle-shaped. Plant hairs are ax-shaped.
Height:
To 2-3/4 inches
Habitat Description: Sandy or gravelly soil in deserts, arid grasslands, and among piñon and juniper.
Plant Communities:
Desert Scrub, Interior Chaparral, Semidesert Grasslands, Pinyon Juniper Woodland, Montane Conifer Forest
Elevation: 2000 - 7000 feet
Color:
Pink-purple, reddish-purple
Shape:
Irregular in elongated clusters
Tubular:
Y
Flowering Period:
Mar - Jun
Description:
5-toothed sepals are 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, hairy like the leaves, the tube is 1/4 to 1/2 inch long; Petals are 5-lobed (a banner, 2 wings and 2 keels), lavender, pink, or red-violet, about twice as long as the sepals.
Leaf Color:
Green, silvery-white
Leaf Type:
Compound
Leaf Shape:
Round or oval
Leaf Margin:
Smooth
Leaf Attachment:
Alternate
Leaves Clasp:
Y
Hairs:
Leaves and stems
Spines:
N
Leaf Description:
Stems usually several, prostrate or ascending, to 2-3/4 inches, in shade sometimes up to 6 inches. Leaves 3/4 to 4 inches long with about 11 to 21 leaflets. The leaflets are equally hairy on both sides.
Fruit Type: Pod
Fruit Notes: Pods are 3/4 to 1-1/2 inches long, 1/4 to 1/2 inch in diameter, compressed, curved or straight.
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