Montana Field Guide

Cushion-forming from a branched caudex. Herbage silvery-sericeous with basifixed and dolabriform hairs. Stems <3 cm long, clothed in stipules. Leaves trifoliolate; leaflets oblanceolate, 5–20 mm long, acute; stipules hyaline, ciliate, 6–13 mm long, united behind the petiole. Inflorescence of 1 or 2 flowers, shorter than leaf petioles. Flowers ochroleucus; sepals 2–4 mm long; calyx strigose; banner slightly reflexed, 15–30 mm long; keel 10–22 mm long, often purple-tipped. Legume ascending, ovoid, 6–10 mm long, sericeous, enclosed in the calyx (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Sandy or gravelly soil of grasslands, sagebrush steppe, barren slopes; 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).