Common Name: oakwoods prairie clover

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Subshrub

General: Perennial shrub, woody at base, to 1 m tall, herbage villous, sometimes sparsely so to glandular.

Leaves: Pinnately compound leaves with 9-23 leaflets, each linear to spatulate, 3-6 mm long, flat to involute.

Flowers: In dense capitate or subcapitate spikes, these terminal or on short or elongate branches; calyx lobes elongate, plumose, corolla pinkish-purple, banner sometimes tinged with white or yellow.

Fruits: Pods glandular and pubescent.

Ecology: Found on rocky slopes from 3,000-6,000 ft (914-1829 m); flowers April-October.

Notes: This description is for D. versicolor var. sessilis, which is the dominant variety in the region that consists of two formerly separated varieties.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Dalea is named for Samuel Dale (1659-1739) an English physician and botanist, while versicolor means variously colored.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley, 2010