Dalea villosa var. villosa

Native

Dry. Sandy prairies. Full sun.

July to August

Pale rose-purple

8″ to 20″

This is a 8″ to 20″ tall, bushy, perennial forb that rises on one to several stems from a stout, woody taproot and caudex.

The stems ascending or reclining on the ground with just the tips ascending. They are branched at the base and are densely covered with long, soft, shaggy, unmatted hairs.

The leaves are alternate, numerous, crowded, 13 ⁄16″ to 2⅜″ long, ½″ to 1″ wide, and on short stalks. They are pinnately divided into 9 to 21 leaflets, usually 11 to 17, always an odd number. There are often tight bundles of leaves in the leaf axils. At the base of the leaf stalk there is a pair of awl-shaped, leaf-like appendages (stipules).

The leaflets are closely spaces, narrowly elliptic or inversely lance-shaped, often more or less folded, 3 ⁄16″ to ⅜″ long, and 1 ⁄16″ to ⅛″ wide. The end leaflet is smaller than the two adjacent lateral leaflets. The upper and lower surfaces are densely covered with long, soft, shaggy, unmatted hairs. The margins are untoothed.

The inflorescence is a dense, cylinder-shaped spike of flowers at the end of each stem. When in fruit the spike is ¾″ to 4″ long and about 5 ⁄16″ wide. The flowers at the base of the spike bloom first, progressing toward the tip, but more than half of the spike is in blossom at any one time. It often appears that the entire head is in flower at once.

The calyx is ⅛″ to 3 ⁄16″ long, 10-ribbed, and densely covered with long, soft, shaggy, unmatted hairs. The flowers are about ¼″ long and about ¼″ wide, numerous, and pale rose-purple, rarely white. There have 5 white, long-clawed petals. The petals do not form the typical banner, wings and keel of most plants in the Pea family. Instead, there is a banner petal and four other petals fused at least part way with the 5 stamen bases and 4 staminodes into a floral tube.

The fruit is an oval pod about ⅛″ long with 1 seed.

Purple prairie clover (Dalea purpurea var. purpurea) stems, leaves, and calyces are hairless or sparsely hairy. The leaves have only 3 to 7, usually 5, leaflets. The leaflets are linear, not elliptic or lance-shaped. The flowering spike is no more than 2¾″ long.

White prairie clover (Dalea candida var. candida) stems, leaves, and calyces are hairless. The leaves have only 5 to 9, usually 7, leaflets. The flowering spike is no more than 2⅓″ long. The flowers are white.