SILKY PRAIRIE-CLOVER
File Size: 139 KB
 
Dalea villosa   (Nutt. ) Spreng.
Russell County, Kansas
Perennial
Height: 8-20 inches
Family: Fabaceae - Bean Family
Flowering Period:   June, July, August
Stems: Ascending or loosely spreading, 1 to several, usually branched above, densely silky.
Leaves: Alternate, crowded, short-stalked, odd-pinnately compound, .75 to 1.5 inch long, .5 to 1 inch wide, densely covered with soft silky hairs; leaflets 11-21, elliptic, .25 to .5 inch long, less than .1 inch wide; margins entire; tips blunt.
Inflorescences: Spikes, cylindric, 1 to 4.5 inches long, densely flowered, terminal; tips sometimes drooping.
Flowers: Calyces 5-lobed, densely hairy, subtended by linear-lanceolate bracts; corollas papilionaceous, petals pink, lavender, or white; stamens 5, filaments united.
Fruits: Pods, silky-hairy; seeds 1, small, smooth, brown.
Habitat: Dry prairies, stream valleys, and open woodlands, on very sandy soils.
Distribution: Principally central 1/3 and southwest corner of Kansas.
Comments: Silky prairie clover has reddish orange roots and grows in dense clumps. In Latin, villosus means "hairy" or "shaggy".

Silky prairie-clover flowers
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Russell County, Kansas
Silky prairie-clover inflorescence
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Russell County, Kansas
Silky prairie-clover leaf
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Russell County, Kansas
Silky prairie-clover
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Russell County, Kansas
Silky prairie-clover
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Russell County, Kansas
Silky prairie-clover
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Russell County, Kansas