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 Plant Desert Botanical Gardens Herbarium Collection, Usage rights: Attribution-Non-Commercial(CC BY-NC) |  Plant Max Licher @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) | | | | |
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Origin:
Native
Life Cycle:
Perennial Similar Species: Dalea janosensis
General Desc:
Mostly upright stems grow in clumps from a woody base. Feather-shaped leaves often have 5 to 7 narrow leaflets. Hairy, cylindric to rounded spikes packed with showy purple to pinkish-purple flowers; bright yellow pollen sacs extend beyond the petals.
Identification notes: Stems clustered and ascending; herbage gland-dotted; leaves alternate, 5 to 7 leaflets; flower spikes hairy, columnar or rounded, tightly packed with bright purple to pinkish-purple flowers with stamens protruding beyond the petals; bright yellow anthers.
Height:
To about 1-1/2 feet
Habitat Description: Found in a variety of soils from clay to sandy and gravelly flats but most common in lime-rich soils. Often found on slopes, bluffs, hillsides, in desert shrublands, sagebrush scrub communities and in forested woodlands such as pinyon-juniper.
Plant Communities:
Desert Scrub, Interior Chaparral, Semidesert Grasslands, Pinyon Juniper Woodland
Elevation: 3000 - 7000 feet
Color:
Bright purple to pinkish-purple
Shape:
Irregular in elongated clusters
Tubular:
Y
Flowering Period:
May - Jun
Description:
Each flower is about 1/8 inch long with 5 petals. The larger top banner petal grows from the base of the flower stalk, the 2 side wing petals and 2 bottom keel petals are attached to the pollen-bearing stalk. Leaf-like sepals below each flower are hairy.
Leaf Color:
Green
Leaf Type:
Compound
Leaf Shape:
Narrow
Leaf Margin:
Smooth
Leaf Attachment:
Alternate
Leaves Clasp:
N
Hairs:
No
Spines:
N
Leaf Description:
Leaves often have 5 to 7 leaflets but can range from 3 to 11. Leaflets are thick, folded or arched, smooth and green above, gland-dotted below, to about 3/4 inch long and to almost 1/4 inch wide. The leaves give off a strong scent when bruised.
Fruit Color: Light brown to yellowish-brown
Fruit Type: Pod
Fruit Notes: Hairy pod is about 1/8 inch long and doesn't split open to release its seed when ripe. Since mature pods easily detach from the flower spike, seeds are often shaken loose. The pod is included in or protrudes from leaf-like sepals.
Seed Notes: 2 immature seeds are produced per fruit but only 1 seed will mature. The mature seed has a very hard coating and is shaggy with a covering of long, soft, curly, hair-like appendages called "trichomes". Seeds are 1/16 to nearly 1/8 inch long.
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