Flora of North America species comparison

erect, ascending, spreading, decumbent, or prostrate, glabrous or pubescent.

erect, 30–80 cm, puberulent, hairs sharply upcurved, branches angled, slightly zigzag.

alternate, palmately compound or unifoliolate;

stipules present or absent, usually persistent, filiform to foliaceous;

petiolate or subsessile;

leaflets 1 or 3[–7], stipels absent, blades 5–150 mm, margins entire, surfaces glabrous or pubescent.

unifoliolate;

stipules ovate, orbiculate, or sickle-shaped, often encircling node, 7–20 mm;

blade broadly obovate, elliptic, or broadly elliptic-lanceolate, 30–70(–120) mm, length 1–1.5(–2) times width, surfaces glabrous.

3–9(–15)-flowered, terminal, subterminal, or lateral, 3–6(–20) cm;

bracts persistent or caducous, linear-triangular.

(1 or)2–50-flowered, usually terminal or subterminal, leaf-opposed, rarely axillary, racemes [heads or flowers solitary or fascicled];

bracts present, persistent or caducous;

bracteoles present, paired proximal to calyx.

papilionaceous;

calyx usually cylindrical, rarely campanulate or cupulate, lobes 5;

corolla usually yellow, sometimes orangish, rarely white, blue, or lavender, glabrous or hairy outside;

stamens 10, monadelphous;

anthers alternately basifixed on long filaments and dorsifixed on small filaments, dehiscing longitudinally;

style with 1 or 2 lines of hairs adaxially;

stigma terminal, usually bilobed.

calyx broadly cylindrical, 2–3 mm, lobes ovate to lanceolate, glabrous or slightly puberulous;

corolla blue to lavender, often variegated with white or blue- to purple-lined, or, sometimes, white or pale yellow tinged blue (drying yellowish), 12–15 mm.

legumes, subsessile to long-stipitate, usually inflated, globose, ovoid to ellipsoid, or cylindrical, dehiscent, often tardily so, glabrous or pubescent.

30–40 × 9–12 mm, moderately hirsute-pilose, hairs spreading to ascending.

1–70, oblique-cordiform to oblong-reniform;

hilar sinus obvious, aril sometimes conspicuous.

= 7, 8.