Flora of North America species comparison

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

erect, 30–90 cm, strigose to strigose-sericeous.

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 sometimes absent, setaceous, not decurrent on stem, 1–2 mm;

blade obovate to spatulate or oblanceolate, 30–80 mm, length 2.2–3(–4) times width, surfaces strigose abaxially, glabrous adaxially.

5–24-flowered, terminal, subterminal, or lateral, 10–20(–30) cm;

bracts caducous, linear, 2–3 mm.

(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, 12–15 mm, basally truncate, lobes triangular-lanceolate, glabrous or slightly puberulous;

corolla bright yellow, with prominent reddish lines to strongly red-tinted, 20–25 mm.

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

25–40(–50) × 10–14 mm, glabrous.

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

hilar sinus obvious, aril sometimes conspicuous.

= 7, 8.

= 16.