Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Round-headed prairie-clover

ROUND-HEADED PRAIRIE-CLOVER

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Dalea multiflora (Nutt. ) Shinners

Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 12-32 inches

Family: Fabaceae - Bean Family

Flowering Period: July, August

Stems:

Erect or ascending, usually several in clumps, much-branched, glabrous, ribbed.

Leaves:

Alternate, short-stalked, odd pinnately compound, .75 to 1.5 inch long; leaflets 3-13, narrowly oblong to linear, .25 to .5 inch long, less than 1/12 inch wide, glabrous, glandular-dotted below; tips usually blunt.

Inflorescences:

Spikes, head-like, spherical, 1/5 to 3/5 inch in diameter, numerous, terminal, on stalks 1 to 4 inches long.

Flowers:

Calyx tubes 5-toothed, 10-ribbed, white, glabrous; corollas papilionaceous, about 1/5 inch long, white, with conspicuous slender claws; stamens 5, filaments united.

Fruits:

Pods, egg-shaped, less than 1/5 inch long; seeds smooth, olive-green or brown.

Habitat:

Dry rocky prairies and brushy hillsides, most abundant in limestone soils.

Distribution:

East 2/3 of Kansas.

Forage Value:

Livestock find it palatable and will graze it from rangeland.

Comments:

Flowering stems of round-headed prairie clover occur in some years and not others. It is often observed only in undisturbed prairies.

Round-headed prairie-clover