Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Herbs or small, round shrubs, herbaceous or woody at the base, herbage not glandular-punctate, stems appressed pubescent, to 1 m tall.

Leaves: Odd-pinnate, leaflets linear to oblanceolate, covered with fine, appressed hairs, to 10 cm long, mostly 7-9 leaflets, sometimes fewer on lower leaves.

Flowers: Corollas white to purple with united stamens, borne on elongate, open racemes with many loosely arranged flowers, calyx 4 mm long, the teeth slender, about as long as the tube, the corolla reddish-purple, about 8 mm long, the style glabrous.

Fruits: Flat, linear, pods with several seeds, strigose and 3-5 cm long.

Ecology: Found on slopes and mesas, from 3,000-6,000 ft (914-1829 m); flowering April-September.

Distribution: s AZ, s NM, s TX; south through MEX to C. Amer.

Notes: Look for this species under Tephrosia tenella. This plant is an ascending to spreading herb, which sometimes becomes rounded and shrubby at the base; distinguished by its loosely arranged leaves and inflorescences; the leaves with 7-9, entire-margined leaflets, each with conspicuous lateral veins and appressed hairs; the flowers often protruding above the surrounding leaves; pods with thickened sutures on the margins and round seeds. Kearney and Peebles reports that this genus is suspected of being poisonous.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Tephrosia means ash colored, while vicioides means like the genus Vicia.

Synonyms: Cracca tenella, Cracca vicioides, Tephrosia tenella

Editor: LCrumbacher 2011, FSCoburn 2015