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  Convolvulaceae: Convolvulus arvensis

  R Neil Reese

  Convolvulus arvensis is a rhizomatous, perennial, widely spreading, decumbent to vining herb with multiple stems growing up to 2 m in length, the stems smooth and lacking tendrils, lying on the ground or wrapping around plants and fences for support. The simple, alternate leaves are variable, ovate to heart shaped to arrowhead shaped, the petioles are 3-40 mm long, and the blades are 1-10cm long by 0.3-6 cm wide, the margins are entire to wavey, the lobes sometimes with 2-3 teeth. The axillary flowers are solitary or with 2-3 flowers on peduncles 1-9 cm long and pedicels 5-18 mm long. Each flower is subtended with 2 linear to elliptic bracts, < 1 cm long and about 2-3 cm below the flower. The 5 rounded, unequal sepals are 3-5 mm long by 2-5 mm wide, the inner ones largest, smooth to hairy. The funnel shaped corolla is white, often tinged with pink, with a yellow patch at the base, 12-25 mm long and about as wide at the opening. The 5 lobes of the corolla are very shallow. There are 5 stamens and a pistil with a divided style that are white, except the anthers that are often purple. Each flower usually lasts only 1 day. The fruit is a round to ovoid capsule, 5-7 mm in diameter. Field bindweed blooms from June into August in in disturbed ground throughout South Dakota.

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  Convolvulaceae : Ipomoea leptophylla

  R. Neil Reese

  Ipomoea leptophylla is a long-lived perennial shrub-like herb, with multiple smooth, decumbent to erect, stems, from a single large root, that grow 30-120 cm in length. The plant develops a large spindle shaped tuber that can extent more than 2 m into the ground and weigh up to 45 kg. The simple, alternate leaves are linear to linear-lanceolate, 3-15 cm long and 2-8 mm wide, petioles 1-7 mm long, the margins entire with a sharp tip. The inflorescence consists of axial cymes of 1-3 (rarely more) on long (7-10 cm) peduncles and each flower having a pedicel of 5-10 mm. The sepals are unequal in size, 5-10 mm long, the inner ones longer and wider than the outer. The purple to pink petals are fused, funnel shaped, 5-9 cm long with a darker throat. The stamens are included, unequal in length, 2-3 cm long with anthers 5-7 mm long. The pistil has a smooth, ovoid ovary and the style is included in the corolla. The fruit is an ovoid capsule 1-1.5 cm long. The seeds are large, 10 mm long and 4 mm wide, with a fine downy-haired coating. Bush morning glory blooms from May through September in the sandy plains and prairies of southwestern South Dakota.

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  Cornaceae : Cornus sericea

  R. Neil Reese

  Cornus sericea is a perennial branching stoloniferous, thicket-forming shrub, growing to 3 m in height. The stems have reddish bark, young branches with short, stiff hairs and older branches smooth. The simple, opposite, petiolate leaves are oblong-lanceolate to ovate, 3–15 cm long, 2-5-5.5 cm wide, with a pointed tip and with 5-7 pairs of prominent pennate veins that are curved toward the tip. The upper surface is green with a few hairs and the lower surface paler. When pulled apart, the veins produce white web-like strands. The inflorescences are flat-topped compound cymes, 3–10 cm across. The sepals are minute, the 4 white to cream colored petals are 2-4 mm long, attached to a disk, the ovary inferior and the stamens as long or longer than the petals. The fruit is a 1-2 seeded drupe, 6-9 mm in diameter. Red osier dogwood blooms from May through July along stream banks, lakeshores and in swampy wet places throughout South Dakota.

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  Cucurbitaceae : Echinocystis lobata

  R. Neil Reese

  Echinocystis lobata is a long (up to 25 m), climbing, annual, hairless vine with long tendrils that allow it to attach to vegetation, fences and other structures. The alternate, simple leaves grow to 17.5 cm long and about as wide, usually having 5 (3-7) triangular lobes and margins with widely spaced teeth. The plants are monoecious, the male flowers are arranged in 10-20 cm long racemes growing from the axils of leaves and the female flowers are in small clusters attached to the same leaf axils. The flowers have 6 greenish white petals that are often twisted and covered in short, glandular hairs, the male flowers with 3 stamens and the female with a pistil having a 2-celled ovary and broad style. The fruit is an inflated, ovoid, green pepo with small spines, that explodes upon drying ejecting 4 dark 12-20 mm long seeds. Wild cucumber blooms from June through October in moist rich soils in woodlands and along waterways throughout South Dakota.

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  Cupressaceae: Juniperus communis

  R Neil Reese

  Juniperus communis is a low, spreading evergreen shrub, growing to 1.5 m high, often forming clumps. The young twigs are yellowish and 3-angled and older stems becoming grayish and finally reddish brown with shredding papery bark. The leaves are needle-shaped, waxy, 10-18 mm long, up to 1.5 mm wide, in whorls of 3 and curved sharply just above the base. The plants are dioecious with axillary, sessile pollen-bearing cones that are and mostly single, 3-5 mm long and 1-2 mm wide being produce on male plants. Female plants produce seed cones that are fleshy, dark blue with a waxy bloom, globose, 5-10 mm in diameter, maturing in the second year and contain 1-3 brown seeds. New cones are pollinated in May and June, usually on wooded hillsides in western South Dakota.

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  Cupressaceae : Juniperus virginiana

  R. Neil Reese

  Juniperus virginiana is a perennial, non-flowering, coniferous evergreen tree with a pyramidal or subcylindrical shaped crown, growing 5–20 m in height. The bark is reddish-brown to gray, fibrous and shredding as it ages. The younger branches are usually red. The adult leaves are green to blue green, tightly adpressed and scale-like, 2–4 mm long, 0.8-1.5 mm wide, arranged in opposite decussate pairs or occasionally whorls of three and overlapping the leaves above. Juvenile leaves are needle shaped, 5–11 mm long and are present on young trees and new branches. Red cedar is usually dioecious with male plants having yellowish-brown, sessile, solitary ovoid cones, 2.5-4 mm long, 1-2 mm in diameter, attached to the ends of branchlets. Female trees produce solitary, berry-like seed cones that are 3–7 mm in diameter, dark purplish-blue with a white waxy covering. These cones mature during the first year and contain 1-3 yellowish seeds. Cones shed pollen and are fertilized in April and May. Eastern red cedar is native to southern South Dakota, being found on pastures, prairie hillsides and disturbed ground. Because of its wide use in shelter belts, it has escaped and is naturalized throughout SD.

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  Elaeagnaceae : Shepherdia argentea

  R. Neil Reese

  Shepherdia argentea is an erect, perennial, deciduous shrub or small tree, growing 2m to 6m in height and forming thickets by root suckers. Young stems are covered in scaley or stellate hairs giving them a white-mealy appearance, becoming gray with age, and 2–3-year-old twigs often end in spines. The simple leaves are opposite, oblong to oblanceolate, 2-5 cm long, 7-12 mm wide, gray green on both the upper and lower surfaces due to a covering of hairs. The margins are entire, the tip blunt and the blade narrowed at the base with a petiole of 3-6 mm. Buffaloberry is dioecious, the flowers in small clusters on 1 year old twigs. Male flowers have 4 sepals fused to a 8-lobed, shallow disk and have 8 stamens, their filament free. The female flowers have 4 sepals fused to a hairy disk that nearly encloses the pistil. The fruit is an ovoid, drupe-like achene, red, juicy and 5–7 mm long. Buffaloberry blooms in May and June and the fruits remain attached into the fall. They grow throughout South Dakota along streambanks, on hillsides and in ravines.

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  Equisetaceae : Equisetum arvense

  R. Neil Reese

  Equisetum arvense is a non-flowering, rhizomatous, perennial herb growing from a rhizome, with dimorphic spreading to ascending stems that grow 10-90 cm in height and dye back each year. The stems are clustered, often forming dense stands. The sterile stems are green and have arching to ascending, whorled branches that are up to 20 cm long. The solid and simple branches have sheaths at the nodes that bear brown to black teeth. The stem is hollow, and the branches are solid. The non-photosynthetic fertile stems are off-white, succulent, 10–25 cm tall, with 4–8 whorls of brown scales and a terminal brown spore cone. The teeth on the fertile stem sheaths are much larger than those on the sterile stems, and the cone is 10–40 mm long and 4–9 mm in diameter. The fertile stems typically appear in early spring. Field horsetail produces short-lived fertile stem in April to June along lakes, streams, in pastures and wooded areas in much of South Dakota.

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  Equisetaceae : Equisetum hyemale

  R Neil Reese

  Equisetum hyemale is a non-flowering, rhizomatous, evergreen perennial, the stems growing to 2 m in height, generally clustered often forming dense stands. The dark green stems are rigid, rough, hollow, vertically ridged and jointed at each node. The nodes are marked by a whorl of tiny, clasping fused ash gray tooth-like leaves tipped in black and a black band. Teeth are usually shed during the growing season. Sterile and fertile stems are alike in this species, with some stem tips bearing a cone-like fruiting head, 5-25 mm long, which produces numerous minute spherical spores. These sporangia develop from April to October. Scouring rush occurs in wet woods, moist hillsides and peripheries of water bodies in the eastern and western peripheries of South Dakota.

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  Ericaceae : Arctostaphylos uva-ursi

  R. Neil Reese

  Arctostaphylos uva-ursi is a perennial low shrub, with trailing flexible stems which form mats 1-2 m in diameter. The bark is reddish on younger stems and light colored and exfoliating on older stems. The leaves are alternate with a short petiole. The blades are entire, spatulate to obovate, evergreen and 1-3 cm long. The upper surface of the leaves is leathery and shiny. The flowers are arranged in terminal racemes or panicles and are often pendulous. The 5 sepals are 1-1.5 mm long, pink to white and persisting in fruit. The corolla is urceolate, white to pink, 4-8 mm long and the lobes are reflexed. There are 10n stamens that are shorter than the petals and a the ovary is 5-celled. The fruit is a fleshy drupe, red, 4-10 mm in diameter containing 5 boney 1-seeded nutlets, Bearberry blooms from May to July and grows in wooded areas on rocky to sandy sights in western South Dakota. This species is commonly found on much of the norther and mountainous regions of North America.

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  Euphorbiaceae : Euphorbia marginata

  R. Neil Reese

  Euphorbia marginata in an annual herb with white milky sap, erect stems, and growing 20–70 cm tall. The stems are unbranched below inflorescence. The simple, sessile leaves are alternate, ovate to elliptical, 3–8 cm long, with entire margins and a pointed tip. They are a medium green in spring. The upper leaves and bracts gradually develop showy white to pinkish edging. There is a whorl of leaves at the base of the terminal umbel-like inflorescence. The unisex flowers are contained in a cup-like involucre (cyathium), 3–4 mm long with 4-5 white lobes, borne singly at the end of the inflorescence branches. Each cyathia has 1 pistilate flower and 35-60 staminate flowers. The fruit is a hairy capsule 4-6 mm long. Snow on the mountain blooms from June to October on prairies, pastures, roadsides and waste places, usually on calcareous soils, throughout South Dakota.

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  Fabaceae: Amorpha canescens

  R. Neil Reese

  Amorpha canescens is a small perennial deciduous shrub or subshrub, which grows 30 cm to 1.2 m in height from a deep, rhizomatous root system. Main stems are brown and woody with the few branching stems being green to gray-white. The grey-green leaves are alternate odd-pinnate and appear leaden due to their dense hairiness Leaves contain 29-41 leaflets, are subsessile with the petiole 0.5-1.0 mm long. The rachis is 8-13 cm long, the petiole and rachis densely are pubescent with short whitish to gray woolly hairs. Leaflets are 9-17 mm long and 4-8 mm wide, ovate-oblong to elliptical. The margins are entire. The flowers bloom from May to August and have a 5-lobed fused calyx 1.5-2.0 mm long, with free lobes 1.5-2.0 mm long. Corollas are not papilionaceous, forming a bluish-purple tube that is 4-5 mm long and 2.0-2.5 mm wide. Ten stamens are exserted from the tube, the free portion of the filaments 4-5 mm long with bright yellow anthers. The superior ovary is 1.0-1.5 mm long and densely hairy, with the style 2-3 mm long and having a 3-lobed stigma. The fruits are small (3-4mm) modified 1-seeded legumes. This plant can be found growing in well-drained soils of prairies, bluffs, and open woodlands.

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  Fabaceae : Amorpha fruticosa

  R. Neil Reese

  Amorpha fruticosa is a deciduous perennial shrub, which has 1 to several stems growing from 1 m to 3.5 m in height, often branched, forming a bushy top. The alternate, pinnately compound leaves are stipulate (caduceus, narrowly linear 2-4 mm in length) 10 – 30 cm long with 4 – 15 pairs of emarginate leaflets. The inflorescences are solitary to clusters of densely flowered racemes 5-20 cm in length that bloom from June to August. The 5-merous calyx is fused forming a tube 2-3 mm long with broadly rounded to triangular lobes extending about 0.5 mm. The reddish-purple petals form a tube 5-6 mm long that encloses the stamens and pistil. There are 10 stamens 6-8 mm long and united at the base, with bright yellow anthers. The single pistil matures into a legume 5-7 mm by 2-3 mm. False indigo is commonly found along moist stream banks, in the open or in open woods.

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  Fabaceae : Amorpha nana

  R. Neil Reese

  Amorpha nana is deciduous perennial shrub, which grows 30 cm to 60 cm in height. The stems are branched above, often covered with short hairs when young. The alternate, compound odd-pinnate leaves are 3-10 cm long with 3-10 cm long petioles having associated stipules that are 3-5 mm long. The broadly oblong leaflets are arranged in 6-15 pairs with a single terminal leaflet and are 6-13 mm long by 3-6 mm wide. Dwarf indigo flowers are borne in densely flowered terminal racemes, 3-9 cm long. The dark, purple-colored flowers appear from May to June. The sepals form a short turbinate tube 2-3 mm long with 1-2 mm long triangular lobes. The corolla is composed of petals fused into a tube, 5-6 mm long, with a slender claw, and encloses the stamens and pistil. There are 10 stamens fused at the base and a single pistil. The fruit is a legume, 4.5-5.5 mm long by 2-3 mm wide. This species is commonly found on dry prairies and rocky or sandy hillsides.

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  Fabaceae: Amphicarpaea bracteata

  R. Neil Reese

  Amphicarpaea bracteate is a herbaceous annual vine with thin green stems reaching up to 2 m in length, found climbing on forbs, grasses and shrubs or sprawling on open hillsides or stream banks in shaded areas. The trifoliate alternate leaves have petioles that are 2-10 cm long with persistent membranous stipules. The leaflets are thin ovate with an acute apex and 2-10 cm long by 1.8-7 cm wide. Mouse beans produce 2 types of flowers. The above-ground flowers are found in axillary racemes (1.5-9cm long) and bloom in late summer. Each flower is subtended by 2 bracts. The calyx is composed of 5 sepals form a tube of 4-5 mm with 4 deltoid lobes extending 0.5-2 mm. The papilionaceous corolla is white to lilac in color. The stamens are diadelphous and there is a single pistil that forms a legume that is 1.4-5 cm long containing 2-5 seeds. The cleistogamous flowers are produced on creeping branches and lack well developed petals. They produce a single-seeded black pods containing 1 white seed about 1 cm in diameter.

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  Fabaceae : Apios americana

  R. Neil Reese

  Apios americana is a perennial herbaceous vine growing from slender rhizomes that produce tubers that get up 6 cm in diameter. The stems grow to 5 m long and climb or sprawl over shrubs and trees. The compound pinnate leaves are inserted in an alternate pattern, having deciduous stipules that are 5-7 mm long. The leaves usually have 5-7 leaflets that are ovate to lance-ovate and rounded at the base, with petioles that are 1.5-8 cm long. Flowers are organized in racemes that have a short peduncle (2-5 cm long) and are found in the axils of leaves. The calices are tubular with the lower lobe triangular and up to halve as long as the tube. The corolla is papilionaceous 10-14 mm long, with the banner reflexed, whitish dorsally and reddish ventrally. The wings are brown to purple, downcurved, and the keel is reddish brown. There are 10 diadelphous stamens, and the legume is straight to slightly curved 5-50 mm by 4-6 mm.

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  Fabaceae: Astragalus canadensis

  R Neil Reese

  Astragalus canadensis is a rhizomatous perennial herb with erect stems growing 30-120 cm in height. The herbage is sparsely to densely covered in ax-shaped hairs. The alternate, sessile to short petiolate, compound odd-pinnate leaves are 5-35 cm long, with 11 to 35, narrow, elliptic leaflets, 1–4 cm long, with blunt to rounded tips and lanceolate stipules 5–10 mm long. The inflorescence consists of axillary spike-like racemes, 4-20 cm long, with 30 to 100 papilionaceous flowers on a peduncle of 2-10 cm. The calyx tube is 4-7 mm long, with teeth 1-4 mm long. The corolla is greenish white to yellowish white, the banner 11-16 mm long, the wings are 10-14 mm long and the keel is 9-13 mm long and occasionally purple tipped. The wings and keel are narrowed at the base. The fruit are erect legumes, elliptic to cylindric in shape, and 9–15 mm long. Canada milkvetch blooms from May through August in moist prairies, along riverbanks and on open wooded hillsides in much of South Dakota.

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  Fabaceae : Astragalus ceramicus var. filifolius

  R. Neil Reese

  Astragalus ceramicus var. filifolius is a perennial herb from buried, spreading rhizomatous caudex. The solitary stems are lax to ascending, 3-40 cm long with silvery, stiff, appressed hairs. The compound leaves are alternate, odd pinnate, 2–17 cm long, often reduced to just the rachis, with the lower most leaves having 3-5 leaflets, with slender petioles and lanceolate stipules, 2–6 mm long, and often united basally. The inflorescence is comprised of axillary racemes of 2-7 white to light purple, papilionaceous flowers on peduncles of 1.5-7 cm in length. The hairy calyx tube is 2-3 mm long with teeth ~1 mm long. The banner is 6-9 mm long, the wings 6-8 mm long and the keel 6-8 mm long, all of the petals narrowed near the base. The fruit are legumes, each pod has a stipe of 1-3 mm in length, is inflated, red mottled, 3-5 cm long and 1.4-2.6 cm in diameter. Painted milkvetch blooms in June and July in sand dunes and sandy prairies in south central and northwest South Dakota.

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  Fabaceae : Astragalus crassicarpus

  R. Neil Reese

  Astragalus crassicarpus is a perennial, prostrate to suberect herb, 11-60 cm in height, with many hair covered stems growing from a well branched caudex atop of a tap root. The alternate, compound leaves are pinnately dissected, 4-13 cm long, with 13-27 oblanceolate to linear leaflets, 3-17 mm long, 3-6 mm wide, with hairs that make them appear slightly grayish, with lanceolate stipules 3-8 mm long. The inflorescence is composed of axillary racemes of 5-25 bluish, purple or white with purple-tipped papilionaceous flowers on peduncles 2-10 cm long. The calyx tube is 6-9 mm long, with black and/or white stiff appressed hairs and teeth 1-4 mm long. The banner petal is notched, 16-24 mm long, the wings are 16-18 mm long, and the keel is 11-15 mm long and narrowed at the base. The fruit is a red to purple, globose, fleshy legume, 15 -25 mm long, resembling a plum. Ground plum blooms from April to June on prairie hillsides, along stream bank and in open woods throughout South Dakota.

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  Fabaceae : Astragalus gilviflorus

  R. Neil Reese

  Astragalus gilviflorus is a perennial, cushion-forming, acaulescent or very short-stemmed (<3 cm>long) herb, covered with silvery ax-shaped hairs. The compound, alternate, petiolate, leaves, have conspicuous, membranous or chartaceous stipules that are persistent, clasping and forming a tube or sheath around the stem. The leaves are trifoliolate, sometimes odd pinnate with 5 leaflets, the leaflets oblanceolate, 5–20 mm long with entire margins. The inflorescences are axillary, globose capitate or subcapitate racemes with 1-6 flowers. The 5-lobed cylindrical calyx tube is hairy, 6-15 mm long with teeth 1.5-4 mm in length. The corolla is papilionaceous, the white petals are clawed (narrowed at the base), the banner is slightly reflexed, 15–30 mm long, the wings 12-24 mm long and the keel is 10–22 mm long, often purple-tipped. The fruit is a legume, 6-10 mm long, oblong or ellipsoidal, exserted from calyx, beaked, hairy, and contains 3-10 mitt shaped seeds. Prairie milkvetch blooms in May and June on rocky prairie hilltops, slopes or barren flats in western South Dakota.

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  Fabaceae: Astragalus racemosus

  R Neil Reese

  Astragalus racemosus is a perennial herb growing from a branched caudex, with multiple, often branched, erect to ascending stems, 15-70 cm tall that are thinly to densely covered with appressed hairs. The alternate, compound odd-pinnate leaves are4-15 cm long, with short petioles below and sessile above, with stipules 3-12 mm long. there are 11-31 leaflets, 1-4 cm long, the lower leaves having broader lance-elliptic leaflets, and the upper leaves with narrower lanceolate leaflets. The inflorescence consist of axillary racemes with 15-70 papilionaceous flowers on peduncles 3-11 cm long. The flowers are generally nodding on pedicels 2-3.5 mm long. The calyx tube is covered in white, appressed hairs, .bell-shaped, 5-7 mm long, sometimes swollen at the base with 5 awn-like lobes, 2-10 mm long. the 5 petals are white to cream colored with purplish tips and or streaks. The banner is 6-12 mm long, the clawed (constricted at the base) wings 12-19 mm long, and the clawed keel 10-16 mm long. The fruit are triangularly compressed legumes, 3.5-7 cm long, 3-6 mm in diameter, with a stipe on the end that is up to 7 mm long. Alkali milkvetch blooms from May to July on poorer soils in prairies, plains, hillsides and in stream valleys in western South Dakota.

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  Fabaceae : Dalea aurea

  R. Neil Reese

  Dalea aurea is a perennial herb with 1 to several erect stems coming from a woody caudex atop a taproot and growing 20-75 cm in height. The stems are simple or branched above and covered with silky hairs. The petiolate leaves are alternate, compound odd-pinnate, blades 1-4 cm long, with 5-7 oblanceolate leaflets, 4-16 mm long. The leaves are largest toward the stem base and are reduced above. The inflorescence consists of silky-haired, many flowered, terminal cone-like spikes on the main stem and branches, becoming oblong-cylindrical, 1.5-7 cm long. The calyx tube is 2-3 mm long, with teeth 3.5-5 mm long and is densely covered with silky hairs. The corolla is papilionaceous, yellow, with all of the petals clawed (narrowed at the base). The petals above the claws measure as follows: banner 6.5-8.6 mm, wings 5-6 mm, and the keel 5.7-8.5 mm long. The fruit is a one-seeded legume, 3-4 mm long and covered with silky hairs. Golden prairie clover blooms from June into September in prairies, open hillsides, in ravines and in stream valleys in western and southwestern South Dakota.

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  Fabaceae : Dalea candida

  R. Neil Reese

  Dalea candida is a perennial herb with 1-several erect stems, simple or branching from above, growing from a caudex attached to a thick taproot, each stem 30 to 100 cm in height. The alternate, compound odd-pinnate, leaves are 1.5-6 cm long, with a short petiole, and 5-13 narrow, gland-dotted, light green leaflets, each 5-35 mm long. The inflorescence is a loose to dense cylindrical spike of flowers, 1.5-7.5 cm long, at the tip of each stem or stem branch. Each flower has a green calyx tube 1.9-2.7 mm long with teeth 0.6-1.8 mm long. The papilionaceous corollas have white clawed (narrowed at the base) petals that measure above the claws: banner 4-5.7 mm long, the wings and keel 3.2-5.3 mm long. The flowers at the base open first and the upper ones bloom later. The fruit is a green oval legume pod, 2.5-4.5 mm long, containing one seed. White prairie clover blooms from May to August on prairies, open woodlands and roadsides throughout South Dakota.

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  Fabaceae : Dalea enneandra

  R. Neil Reese

  Dalea enneandra is a perennial herb with 1-3 erect stems, branched above the middle, which are 5-10 dm tall and arise from a caudex attached to a yellow taproot. The alternate, nearly sessile, pinnately compound leaves are 1.3-2.6 cm long, with leaves on the main stem often deciduous by time of anthesis. The leaves 5-13 leaflets, narrowly oblanceolate, 4-12 mm long with black glands on the leaflets and midrib. The inflorescence consists of terminal, 2-ranked spikes, with 5-35 flowers, subtended by bracts, 3-4 mm long with pale or white membranous margins. The calyx tube is covered with silky hairs, 3-3.7 mm long with 5 teeth 3.3-4.6 mm long. The papilionaceous white petals are clawed (narrowed at the base) with the remainder of the petals measuring as follows: banner 5.7-7 mm, wings 2.8-4.1 mm, and the keel 5.5-7 mm long. There are 9 stamens. The fruit are one-seeded legumes, 3-4 mm long. Nine-anther prairie clover blooms in July and August in prairies, on hillside and in stream valleys in most of South Dakota.

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  Fabaceae : Dalea purpurea

  R. Neil Reese

  Dalea purpurea is a perennial herb, with ascending to prostrate stems, which grow singly or in groups from a woody caudex, 20 to 90 cm in height. The stems can vary from smooth to very hairy. The alternate, odd-pinnate compound leaves are 1.5-4.5 cm long, with 3-7 linear to linear-oblanceolate leaflets, 10-28 mm long and can be smooth to hairy. The inflorescence consists of terminal, conical, densely hairy spikes, 1-7 cm long attached to a peduncles 0-15 cm long. Each flower is subtended by hairy bracts, 2.5-5.8 mm long. The densely hairy, bell-shaped calyx tube is 2-3 mm long with teeth 1-2 mm long. The papilionaceous corolla has clawed (narrowed at the base), pinkish to rose to purple-colored petals with the petal length beyond the claws as follows: banner 4.5-7 mm, wing and keel 3-5 mm long. The fruit is a single-seeded legume, 2-2.5 mm long. Purple prairie clover blooms from May into August on prairies, hillsides, open woods and stream valleys throughout South Dakota.