Montana Field Guide

Subacaulescent perennial, often forming tight to loose mats from a branched caudex and thick taproot. Stems prostrate to ascending, 1–2 cm, covered in old stipules. Herbage glabrous. Leaflets oblong to obovate, denticulate, 4–20 mm long; stipules scarious, lanceolate, 3–8 cm long. Racemes umbellate, terminal, 1–3 cm wide, non-involucrate, longer than the leaves. Flowers declined, whitish to light purple, 10–15 mm long; calyx glabrous; sepals narrowly lanceolate, 2–4 mm long. Legume short-stipitate, glabrous, ca. 3 mm long with 1 or 2 seeds (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Sparsely vegetated, stony soil of meadows, turf, fellfields; subalpine, alpine (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 frigidus, Bombus huntii, Bombus melanopygus, Bombus mixtus, Bombus nevadensis, Bombus rufocinctus, Bombus sylvicola, Bombus ternarius, Bombus occidentalis, Bombus pensylvanicus, Bombus bimaculatus, Bombus griseocollis, Bombus impatiens, Bombus insularis, Bombus suckleyi, Bombus bohemicus, Bombus flavidus, and Bombus kirbiellus (Plath 1934, Hobbs 1966, Macior 1974, Heinrich 1976, Bauer 1983, Thorp et al. 1983, Mayer et al. 2000, Rao and Stephen 2007, Wilson et al. 2010, Colla and Dumesh 2010, Colla et al. 2011, Koch and Strange 2012, Koch et al. 2012, Miller-Struttmann and Galen 2014, Williams et al. 2014).