Perennial from widely branched caudex. Herbage villous. Stems prostrate to ascending, 10–20 cm. Leaves with 13 to 25 oblong to narrowly elliptic leaflets, 4–15 mm long with rounded tips; stipules lanceolate, 3–8 mm long, the lower connate. Inflorescence shorter than the leaves, crowded, of 6 to 12 spreading to ascending flowers. Flowers purple; calyx white-strigose; sepals 2–4 mm long; banner 15–20 mm long, moderately reflexed; keel 10–15 mm long. Legume spreading, ovoid, villous, fleshy, becoming hard, leathery, 15–20 mm long including the filiform beak 3–6 mm long (
Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).
POLLINATORS The following animal species have been reported as pollinators of this plant species or its genus where their geographic ranges overlap:
Bombus vagans,
Bombus appositus,
Bombus auricomus,
Bombus bifarius,
Bombus borealis,
Bombus centralis,
Bombus fervidus,
Bombus flavifrons,
Bombus huntii,
Bombus mixtus,
Bombus nevadensis,
Bombus rufocinctus,
Bombus ternarius,
Bombus terricola,
Bombus occidentalis,
Bombus pensylvanicus,
Bombus griseocollis, and
Bombus insularis (Macior 1974, Thorp et al. 1983, Mayer et al. 2000, Colla and Dumesh 2010, Wilson et al. 2010, Koch et al. 2012, Miller-Struttmann and Galen 2014, Williams et al. 2014).