Duration: Perennial
Nativity: Native
Lifeform: Forb/Herb
General: Perennial herb, 5-20 cm tall, from a taproot and a slightly woody base; stems branching at the base, sometimes decumbent at the base but more often ascending to erect; herbage silky-canescent.
Leaves: Alternate and pinnately compund, 2-3 cm long, with 3-9 leaflets per leaf; leaflets 5-10 mm long, obovate to oblanceolate, silky-canescent on both surfaces, sometimes obscurely gland-dotted on lower surface.
Flowers: Yellow and fading to blue-purple, in ovoid to oblong spikes, 1-3 cm long and 1-2 cm wide, at branch tips; flowers about 1 cm long, with pea-flower morphology (papilionaceous), with a wide upper petal called the banner, two smaller lateral petals called the wings, and a boat-shaped lower petal called the keel which contains the style and stamens. Petals yellow when fresh and fading to a blue-purple or rose color as they dry; sepals 5, long-hairy, united at the base into a tube 3 mm long, this topped with 5 awn-tipped teeth which are longer than the tube.
Fruits: Pods villous, small, and contained within the persistent hairy calyx; containing 1 or 2 seeds.
Ecology: Found on dry soils in woodlands, grasslands and scrub from 3,500-5,500 ft (1067-1676 m); flowers May-September.
Distribution: AZ, s NM, s TX; south to n MEX.
Notes: A variable species depending on which variety you are looking at. In general distinguished by being a perennial with multiple erect-ascending stems from a single base and taproot; leaves and stems with dense, long, silky appressed silvery hairs giving the plant a gray-green appearance; usually 5 acute to obtuse leaflets per leaf; inflorescence 10-15 mm wide with yellow flowers turning orange and then purple after polination. Var. nana is the more common variety with gray-hairy leaves, while var. carnescens is distinguished by having green leaflets that are glabrate (mostly lacking hairs) on the upper surface.
Ethnobotany: Used as a strengthener for weak children.
Etymology: Dalea is named for Samuel Dale (1659-1739) an English physician and botanist; nana comes from the Greek nannos for dwarf.
Editor: SBuckley 2010, FSCoburn 2015, AHazelton 2017
