Dalea purpurea (Purple Prairie-Clover) - photos and description
Looking straight down on flower spikes.
General: Perennial plants with a procumbent to erect growth habit. Stems red, and sparingly hairy.
Flowers: In dense cylindrical spikes, the flowers are pink to reddish-purple in colour with gold stamens. Flower spikes measured to 3.5 cm long.
Leaves: Leaves alternate, pinnate with 3 to 5 leaflets. Leaflets pinnate, linear. Leaflet measured at 2 cm long and 1 mm wide. Leaflet margins with long hairs, their top and bottom sparingly hairy.
Height: Budd's Flora lists the height to 50 cm, we measured plants to 42 cm tall.
Habitat: Prairies, and grassy hillsides.
Abundance: Common.
Origin: Native.
Synonym: Listed in some of the field guides we use as Petalostemon purpureum.
When and where photographed: Photos taken July 10th, sandy ditch about 100 km west of Regina, SK, and July 12th grassland hills of the Qu'Appelle Valley, about 40 km north of our home in Regina, SK.