Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

TRAILING WILDBEAN

File Size: 46 KB

Strophostyles helvola (L. ) Elliott

Cowley County, Kansas

Annual

Height: 12-80 inches long

Family: Fabaceae - Bean Family

Flowering Period: July, August, September

Stems:

Stems trailing, decumbent, or climbing and twining, branched from base, pilose or glabrate, not glandular-dotted.

Leaves:

Usually alternate, proximal sometimes opposite, usually odd-pinnately compound, proximal sometimes simple, rachis not extended into conspicuous tendril; stipules ovate to triangular, 1/12 to 1/4 inch; petiole .2 to 2.8 inches; leaflets usually 3, blades rhombic to ovate or ovate-oblong, usually less than 2 times longer than wide, .8 to 2.8 inches long, .6 to 2 inches wide, base rounded or acute, margins entire to deeply 3-lobed, tip rounded to acute, mucronate, surfaces appressed-pubescent or upper surface glabrous.

Inflorescences:

Racemes, axillary, head-like, 2-5-flowered, .1/5 to 3/5 inch, or flowers solitary; peduncles 1.2 to 6 inches.

Flowers:

Papilionaceous; calyx campanulate, tube 1/16 to 1/8 inch, glabrous or sparsely pilose, 2-lipped, upper 2 lobes fused, lower 3 lobes unequal, middle lobe 1/6 to 1/4 inch; corolla pink to pinkish purple, fading greenish yellow, 1/3 to 3/5 inch; banner round or broadly ovate; wings curved-oblong, shorter than keel petals; keel sometimes darker purple, sickle-shaped with strongly curved and rounded apex; stamens 10, diadelphous; style bearded.

Fruits:

Pods, linear, 1.4 to 4 inches, straight, round or slightly flattened in cross section, sparsely appressed-pubescent; seeds 3-10, brown, oblong, 1/5 to 2/5 inch, pubescent with white woolly patches.

Habitat:

Rocky woodlands, thickets, tallgrass, mixed-grass, and sand prairie ravines, river and stream banks, and flood plains

Distribution:

East 2/3 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Comments:

Strophostyles, twisting + pillar, alluding to the style, which is enveloped by the strongly recurved keel and helvola, light yellow.

Trailing wildbean