WHITE PRAIRIE-CLOVER
File Size: 63 KB
 
Dalea candida  Michx. ex  Willd.
Riley County, Kansas
Perennial
Height: 1-3 feet
Family: Fabaceae - Bean Family
Flowering Period:   June, July, August
Stems: Erect or widely spreading, 1 to several, slender, straight, simple or sparingly branched above, glabrous, ribbed, sometimes glandular-dotted.
Leaves: Alternate, short-stalked or nearly sessile, odd-pinnately compound, .75 to 2.5 inches long, .5 to 1 inch wide; leaflets 5-13, elliptic to oblanceolate, .25 to 1.5 inch long, glabrous, minutely glandular-dotted below; tips usually sharp-pointed.
Inflorescences: Spikes, cylindric, 1 to 3 inches long, about 1/2 inch thick, densely flowered, terminal.
Flowers: Calyces 5-toothed, 10-ribbed, glabrous or pubescent; corollas papilionaceous, less than 1/4 inch long, white; banner petals erect, larger than wing and keel petals; stamens 5, filaments united.
Fruits: Pods, oval, less than 1/5 inch long, glandular, protruding from persistent calyces, 1-seeded.
Habitat: Prairies, rocky hillsides, roadsides, waste places, and open, rocky woods.
Distribution: Principally east 2/3 of Kansas.
Forage Value: White prairie-clover is readily grazed by livestock and will disappear in overgrazed areas.
Uses: Native Americans steeped dried leaves in water to make a tea, used the leaves to create medicine applied to wounds, and chewed the sweet-tasting roots.
Comments: The taproot can descend to 6 feet.

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