Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Palm-leaf scurf-pea

PALM-LEAF SCURF-PEA

File Size: 33 KB

Pediomelum digitatum (Nutt. ex T. & G.) Isley

[=Psoralea digitata Nutt. ex T. & G.]

Ellsworth County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 12-32 inches

Family: Fabaceae - Bean Family

Flowering Period: June, July

Also Called:

Palm-leaf indian breadroot.

Stems:

Erect or ascending, stiffly open-branched, pubescent.

Leaves:

Alternate, palmately 5-foliolate or sometimes 3-foliolate on branches; leaflets linear or linear-oblanceolate, 3/5 to 2.8 inches long, 1/12 to 1/3 inch wide, middle leaflet longest; upper surface mostly glabrous, gland-dotted; lower surface densely appressed-hairy, gray; tip pointed or rounded, often with short spine; stalks 4/5 to 2.8 inches long; stipules lanceolate, 1/5 to 2/5 inch long, stiff-hairy.

Inflorescences:

Raceme, erect or ascending, spike-like, slender, 1.2 to 3.6 inches long, terminal on stalks 2 to 7 inches long from leaf axils; flowers in well-separated whorls of 3-11, mostly sessile; bracts subtending flowers 2-3, egg-shaped to spoon-shaped.

Flowers:

Calyx tube bell-shaped, 1/10 to 1/8 inch long, densely silky, 2-lipped, lobes tapering-pointed; upper 4 lobes 1/8 to 1/6 inch long; lower lobe 1/5 to 1/4 inch long; corolla papilionaceous, blue, purple, or rarely white, fading yellowish-brown; banner egg-shaped, about 1/2 inch long; wings 1/4 inch long; stamens 10, 9 united, 1 free.

Fruits:

Pod, enclosed in persistent calyx, 1-seeded, papery, 1/4 to 1/3 inch long, with flat, straight beak; seeds broadly elliptic, 1/6 to 1/5 inch long, 1/8 inch wide, shiny, slightly flattened, olive to dark-brown.

Habitat:

Sandy prairies, stream valleys, sand dunes, gravelly hillsides, sandy open wooded hillsides; sandy or clay soils.

Distribution:

Central 1/3 and southwest 1/4

Origin:

Native

Comments:

The calyx becomes prominently enlarged in fruit, with the lobes widely separated by rounded sinuses. Latin digitatus "having fingers", alluding to the palmately compound leaves.

Palm-leaf scurf-pea