Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

WILD ALFALFA

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Pediomelum tenuiflorum (Pursh ) A. N. Egan

[=Psoralea tenuiflora Pursh]

Riley County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 1-4 feet

Family: Fabaceae - Bean Family

Flowering Period: May, June, July

Also Called:

Many-flower scurf-pea, narrow-leaf scurf-pea.

Stems:

Erect or ascending, 1 to several, wiry, much-branched, longitudinally ridged, grayish hairy.

Leaves:

Alternate, short-stalked, palmately compound, stem-leaves 5-foliolate, branch leaves often 3-foliolate; leaflets elliptic to oblanceolate, 1/2 to 2 inches long, 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide, nearly glabrous above, stiff hairy below; margins entire; tips usually blunt or rounded, abruptly short-pointed.

Inflorescences:

Racemes, elongate, many-flowered, terminal.

Flowers:

Calyces bell-shaped, 5-lobed, lower lobe slightly longer than 4 upper lobes, conspicuously glandular-dotted; corollas papilionaceous, about 1/4 inch long, light blue to purple, usually in clusters of 2-4, stamens 10, 9 united, 1 free.

Fruits:

Pods, egg-shaped, smooth, about 1/3 inch long, glandular-dotted; seeds smooth, often shiny, brown.

Habitat:

Dry sandy or rocky prairies, open woodlands, and roadsides.

Distribution:

Throughout Kansas.

Forage Value:

Livestock do not particularly like it but will consume its early growth or plants cured in prairie hay.

Uses:

The Lakota treated headaches with a tea made from the roots and burned the plant to ward off mosquitoes.

Comments:

This native legume resembles alfalfa but has smaller and narrower leaves that grow less densely. Wild alfalfa is fairly drought resistant, with roots going down 10 feet.

Wild alfalfa flowers