Pediomelum argophyllum

Native

Dry. Prairies.

June to August

Dark blue

18″ to 36″

This is a 18″ to 36″ tall, erect, bushy, perennial forb that rises on 1 to several stems from a woody rhizome. The entire plant has a silvery appearance. At maturity the plant comes apart at the joints and blows away in the wind. It often forms colonies.

The stems are erect or ascending, often zigzagged, and much branched with widely spreading branches. They are densely covered with long, soft, silky, somewhat appressed, white hairs.

Stem leaves are alternate and are palmately divided into 5 leaflets. Branch leaves are alternate and are divided into 3 leaflets. They are on ½″ to 1½″ long leaf stalks.

The leaflets are narrowly egg-shaped or narrowly elliptic to inversely lance-shaped, ¾″ to 1½″ long, and up to about ⅜″ wide. They are densely covered with long, soft, silky, somewhat appressed, white hairs.

The inflorescence is a ¾″ to 3″ long spike of whorls of flowers rising on 1″ to 4″ long stalks from the upper leaf axils. There are 1 to 5 whorls on the spike with space between the whorls. There are 2 to 8 stalkless flowers in each whorl.

The flowers are ⅛″ to ⅜″ wide and pea-like, with 5 petals organized into a broad banner at the top, 2 narrow wings, and a keel in the center formed by two petals fused together at the tip. The petals are dark blue. The banner has a white patch near the throat.

The fruit is a densely hairy, egg-shaped pod containing a single seed.