Missouri milk-vetch

Images

Click on image to view full size

Missouri milk-vetch

Missouri milk-vetch

Missouri milk-vetch inflorescence

Missouri milk-vetch calyces

Missouri milk-vetch

Missouri milk-vetch

Missouri milk-vetch pods

Missouri milk-vetch

Missouri milk-vetch leaves

Missouri milk-vetch flowers

Missouri milk-vetch

Missouri milk-vetch flowers

Missouri milk-vetch fruit

Morphology

Stem

Prostrate, few to several, loosely tufted, 1/2 to 6 inches long, hairy.

Leaves

Alternate, odd-pinnately compound, 1 to 5 inches long, 1/4 to 3/4 inch wide; leaflets 7-21, elliptic, 1/4 to 3/4 inch long, densely silvery-white to grayish hairy.

Inflorescence

Racemes, short, on stalks about as long as leaves, 3-15-flowered.

Flower

Calyces 1/4 to 3/4 inch long, grayish or blackish hairy; corollas papilionaceous, purple to rose-purple; banner 1/2 to 1 inch long, center usually pale; stamens 10, 9 united, 1 free.

Fruit

Pods, sessile, oblong, 1/2 to 1 inch long, contracted abruptly into beaks, hairy; seeds usually wrinkled, brown.

Ecology

Habitat

Prairie hillsides, ravines, stream valleys, and roadsides, most abundant in rocky limestone soils with sparse vegetation.

Distribution

West two thirds of Kansas.

Practical Information

Forage Value

Missouri milk-vetch occasionally is grazed by livestock and wildlife.