Montana Field Guide

Acaulescent perennial from a tightly branched caudex, sometimes forming small cushions. Herbage strigose to canescent with dolabriform hairs. Stems lacking. Leaves simple (rarely trifoliolate), petiolate; the blade linear-oblanceolate, 1–3 cm long; stipules connate. Inflorescence exceeding the leaves, of 3 to 12 ascending flowers. Flowers purple; calyx white- or black-strigose; sepals 1–2 mm long; banner 6–9 mm long, moderately erect; keel 5–7 mm long. Legume erect, linear, flattened, slightly curved, white-strigose, 7–15 mm long (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Sparsely vegetated, stony soil of grasslands, sagebrush steppe; plains, valleys (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 huntii, Bombus mixtus, Bombus nevadensis, Bombus rufocinctus, Bombus ternarius, Bombus terricola, Bombus occidentalis, Bombus pensylvanicus, Bombus griseocollis, and Bombus insularis (Macior 1974, Thorp et al. 1983, Mayer et al. 2000, Colla and Dumesh 2010, Wilson et al. 2010, Koch et al. 2012, Miller-Struttmann and Galen 2014, Williams et al. 2014).