Plants winter-annual or short-lived perennial, clump-forming, 15–60(–100) cm. Stems erect and ascending. Leaves (5–)7–16 cm; leaflets 13–21(–25), blades broadly elliptic, oval, rhombic-obovate, or obovate, (4–)6–21 mm, apex retuse or emar­ginate. Peduncles (3–)5–10 cm. Racemes loosely (12–)15–32-flowered, lax and open in fruit; axis early elongating, (4.5–)6–14 cm in fruit. Flowers 11–15.6 mm; calyx 6–7.5 mm, tube 4.4–5.7 mm, lobes (1.3–)1.5–2.4 mm; corolla white or ochro­leucous, concolorous, sometimes fading pale bluish, petals poorly graduated, banner slightly longer than wings, wings and keel nearly equal length. Legumes stramineous, plumply ovoid-acuminate or subglobose, strongly inflated, 15–25(–32) × 10–18 mm, bilocular, papery-membranous, subtranslucent, usually glabrous, rarely minutely strigulose; beak 3–7 mm, unilocular. Seeds 17–26. 2n = 22.

Phenology: Flowering Feb–May.
Habitat: Open sandy plains, sandy or rocky washes, gulches in foothills of desert mountains, with Larrea and in yucca-grasslands.
Elevation: 500–1100 m.

Distribution

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Ariz., Nev.

Discussion

Variety yuccanus occurs in west-central Arizona, barely entering Nevada in the southern tip of Clark County.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.