FOXTAIL DALEA
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| File Size: 63 KB |
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Dalea leporina (Aiton ) Bullock
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| Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas |
| Annual |
| Height: 8-24 inches |
| Family: Fabaceae - Bean Family |
| Flowering Period: August, September |
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| Also Called: | | Hare's-foot dalea, foxtail prairie clover. | | Stems: | | Erect, simple to much branched, ridged, glandular above, glabrous below inflorescence; branches ascending. | | Leaves: | | Alternate, odd-pinnately compound, 1-4 inches long, short-stalked; main stem leaves with 7-20 pairs of leaflets; leaflets oblong-lanceolate or egg-shaped; 1/8 to 1/2 inch long, glabrous, glandular-dotted beneath; margins entire, sometimes red; tips rounded, notched. | | Inflorescences: | | Spikes, erect, dense, egg-shaped or cylindric, .6 to 3.2 inches long, 1/3 to 1/2 inch in diameter, soft-hairy, terminal on stalks at ends of branches and opposite leaves; flowers closely overlapping, each subtended by egg-shaped to lanceolate bract with thin, membranous margin. | | Flowers: | | Calyx 5-lobed, 1/10 inch long, 10-ribbed, finely-hairy; lobes awl-shaped, long-pointed, margins feathery; corolla papilionaceous, white or bluish-purplish; banner 1/6 to 1/4 inch long; wings and keel half as long as banner; stamens 9 or 10. | | Fruits: | | Pod, 1/10 inch long, papery, 1-seeded; seed shiny, smooth, brown. | | Habitat: | | Roadsides, stream and lake margins, field borders, open woods, occasionally prairie ravines; disturbed alluvial soils. | | Distribution: | | Throughout Kansas. | | Forage Value: | | Livestock will eat foxtail dalea, but it has limited forage value. | | Comments: | | A weedy species that is easily overlooked. Common in some years and not observed in others. Daleas are named in honor of English botanist Samuel Dale, (1659-1739). |
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| Foxtail dalea inflorescence |  | | 123 KB | | Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas |
| | Foxtail dalea leaf |  | | 61 KB | | Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas |
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