Onobrychis viciifolia |
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common sainfoin |
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Habit | Plants inconspicuously strigose to glabrate. |
Stems | erect, clustered, 3–8 dm. |
Leaves | 15–20 cm; leaflets 9–21, obovate to narrowly elliptic, 10–25 × 3–7 mm; tips apiculate; surfaces abaxially appressed-pubescent, adaxially red-dotted and glabrous. |
Inflorescences | 10–50-flowered; peduncles 10–20 cm; bracts 2–4 mm; pedicels 1–2.5 mm. |
Flowers | ascending-spreading; calyces 5–7.5 mm; tubes 1.5–2 mm; teeth 4–6 mm; corollas 8–15 mm, pink-purple, red-veined. |
Fruits | ascending, obovate to ovate, flattened, exserted from persistent calyces, 5–8 mm, coarsely reticulate, coriaceous, densely appressed-pubescent; margins with toothed wing. |
2n | =8. |
Onobrychis viciifolia |
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Distribution | |
Discussion | Roadsides, disturbed areas, farmland. Flowering Jun–Aug. 800–1500 m. BR, BW. CA, ID, NV, WA; widely scattered in Canada and US; Asia, Europe. Exotic. Common sainfoin is cultivated for forage and soil improvement. It is recognizable by its long, spike-like racemes of pink-purple flowers with a large blunt keel and small wings, and single-seeded, indehiscent fruits. It could be mistaken for a species of Hedysarum, but the fruits in that genus are several-seeded. |
Source | Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 710 Richard Halse |
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