Dalea mollis
Dalea mollis is a species of flowering plant in the legume family which is known by the common name hairy prairie clover.
| Dalea mollis | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Fabales |
| Family: | Fabaceae |
| Subfamily: | Faboideae |
| Genus: | Dalea |
| Species: | D. mollis |
| Binomial name | |
| Dalea mollis | |
Distribution
This wildflower is native to the deserts of California, Arizona, and Northwestern Mexico.
It is a common member of the Mojave Desert and Sonoran Desert ecoregions. It forms a small, flat patches on the gravelly desert floor and on slopes and weedy roadsides.
Description
Dalea mollis is a small cloverlike mat-forming annual legume with gland-dotted foliage covered thickly in long white hairs. The leaves are made up of several pairs of small, folded, oval-shaped leaflets each about a centimeter long. The plant flowers in pea-like blooms just under a centimeter wide which may be lavender, yellow, or white, sometimes bicolored. The fruit is a small, single-seeded legume pod.