Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Perennial herb, 10-20 cm tall, from slender roots; stems branched at the base, straggling, decumbent to prostrate, gland-dotted and densely covered with short silky hairs.

Leaves: Alternate and pinnately compund, 15-30 mm long, with 7-15 leaflets per leaf; leaflets 3-8 mm long, obovate with a wedge-shaped base and with small rounded teeth along the margins (crenulate); surfaces densely hairy and gland dotted.

Flowers: White-yellow to pink, in dense spikes 1-6 cm long, at branch tips; flowers about 8 mm 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 white to yellow or pink-tinged; sepals 5, villous, united at the base into a tube 3-4 mm long, this topped with 5 bristle-like teeth, 5 mm long.

Fruits: Pod villous, small, and contained within the persistent hairy calyx; containing 1 or 2 seeds.

Ecology: Found on sandy plains, from 3,500-4,500 ft (1067-1372 m); flowers nearly year-round, but especially in springtime.

Distribution: w TX to s NV and CA; south to MEX

Notes: This low-growing perennial Dalea is distinguished by the following combination of traits: short, prostrate, spreading, herbaceous stems; leaflets gray-green and hairy on both sides, with rounded teeth around the edges; each leaflet has several small dark glands which tend to be around the edges; flowers in compact hairy spikes, 1-2 cm wide; the calyx, in particular, is copiously hairy; flower petals are usually a cream-yellow color or pink-tinged.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Dalea is named for Samuel Dale (1659-1739) an English physician and botanist; neomexicana means of or from New Mexico.

Editor: AHazelton 2017