Montana Field Guide

Often nearly stemless perennial with a short-branched caudex. Herbage with dense, appressed, dolabriform hairs. Stems 1–8 cm, ascending to erect. Leaves with 9 to 17 elliptic leaflets, 5–15 mm long with rounded tips; stipules lanceolate, 2–6 mm long, distinct. Inflorescence longer than the leaves, short, dense with 3 to 12 spreading to ascending flowers, often prostrate in fruit. Flowers lavender; calyx black- and/or white-strigose; sepals 3–5 mm long; banner 15–22 mm long, moderately reflexed; keel 14–20 mm long. Legume linear-oblong with a subulate tip, 15–27 mm long, strigillose, turgid, becoming leathery (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Our plants are variety missouriensis.

Grasslands, sagebrush steppe, pine woodlands; plains, valleys (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).