Fabaceae

Showing all 12 results

  • Astragalus miser / timber milkvetch

    • compound leaves with small, egg-shaped leaflets
    • teeny, pea-like flowers - bicolored but overall blue/purple
    • keel tip is purple and pointed
    • small, hairy seed pods
    • grassland, meadows, and other open communities

  • Astragalus purshii / woollypod milkvetch

    • low growing, silvery, compound leaves; no tendrils
    • magenta (or white) "pea-like" flowers with darker keel petal
    • "congested" inflorescence
    • found in very dry areas, not in shade

  • Hedysarum occidentale / western sweetvetch

    • tall legume with hot pink flowers
    • inflorescence several inches long; up to 80 flowers
    • pinnately compound leaves with 9-21, inch-long leaflets
    • higher elevations on drier, more rocky soils

  • Lotus corniculatus / birds-foot trefoil

    • roadsides and other disturbed areas
    • numerous bright yellow, pea-like flowers
    • three, oval and pointed leaflets
    • seed pods are arranged like toes on a bird's foot

  • Lupinus spp. / silvery and silky lupins

    • palmately compound, usually silvery-green leaves
    • 5-9 leaflets per leaf; long petioles
    • flowers on long, spikey racemes, blooming from bottom upward
    • numerous flowers, but all rather teeny; most purple or blue
    • flowers are above the leaves
    • seeds in short, hairy pods

  • Medicago lupulina / black medic

    • prostrate, long creeping stems
    • compound leaves with 3 small, rounded leaflets
    • teeny yellow flowers in very small button-like clusters
    • disturbed areas with compacted soil - roadsides & wastelands

  • Medicago sativa / alfalfa

    • escaped forage plant
    • bright purple flowers in dense clusters
    • pea-like flowers with broad upper petal, 2 small laterals, keel
    • compound leaves with 3 leaflets, the central one extended on a short stalk
    • disturbed sites - roadsides, full sun

  • Melilotus spp / sweetclover

    • yellow or white, floppy, tubular flowers in long-ish clusters (racemes)
    • 3 small, pointy leaflets with petioles
    • rangy, unkempt branching
    • roadsides, waste places and sometimes in fields, grasslands

  • Onobrychis viciifolia / sainfoin

    • forage legume, taller than alfalfa
    • pink pea-like flowers with striped banner petal and darker keel
    • spiky inflorescence (a raceme) blooming from bottom up - up to 50 flowers
    • pinnately compound leaves with single terminal leaflet
    • naturalized with sagebrush and mountain shrubs, but also in the central Valley

  • Oxytropis sericea / white-point vetch

    • white "pea" flowers in clusters of up to 25
    • banner petal white with purple/blue veins
    • hairy, pinnately compound leaves, all basal
    • disturbed areas, especially exposed to cold, drought, high light etc.
    • pretty, but toxic to grazing animals

  • Trifolium longipes / long-stalked clover

    • a (mostly) 3-leaf clover, leaves evenly colored
    • leaves long and narrow (not rounded), toothed (small) margins
    • leaves on long petioles
    • flower heads on long peduncles,

  • Trifolium repens / white clover

    • the quintessential 3-leaf clover
    • white flower heads, tinged with pink (perhaps)
    • found in full sun with little other specific requirements
    • four leaflet leaves bring good luck

Showing all 12 results