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common sainfoin

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

Distribution
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
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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