Dalea candida Willd. (if recognized, var. candida), white prairie clover. Perennial herb, taprooted with woody, dark brown caudex, 1—4–stemmed at base, principal branches ascending, often unbranched below canopy, in canopy with short axillary shoots having 1—several leaves, in range to 50 cm tall and principal branches to 65 cm long; shoots with only cauline leaves, shoot glabrous, conspicuously gland–dotted with blisterlike glands on lower blades and along axes and principal veins.
Stems initially ridged aging cylindric on old stems, to 2.5 mm diameter, with ridge descending from each leaf, internodes to 20 mm long.
Leaves helically alternate, odd–1–pinnately compound in range with 3, 5, or 7 leaflets and lateral leaflets in pairs, petiolate with pulvinus, with stipules; stipules 2, attached at base of pulvinus, linear to acuminate and slender especially above midpoint, < 1—3 mm long, abscising; petiole pulvinus ca. 1 mm long, green, above pulvinus axis channeled, 1—9 mm long, gland–dotted; rachis channeled, to 15 mm long, pairs of lateral leaflets spaced 2.5—7 mm apart; petiolule 0.4—1.1 mm long, white or greenish; blades of leaflets folded upward from midrib, oblanceolate to elliptic or narrowly elliptic, < 5—30 × < 2—5 mm, terminal > lateral leaflets, long–tapered at base, entire, acute to obtuse at tip often with sharp point (extension of midrib), with only midrib visible sunken on upper surface and conspicuously raised on lower surface, glands not visible on dull upper surface.
Inflorescence spike, terminal on long peduncle, initially ovoid aging cylindric, in range 20—55 mm long, dense, 80+–flowered, flowers helically alternate tightly packed in 8 ± vertical files, bracteate; peduncle ridged, at early anthesis 35—110 × ca. 1 mm, often with to 4, alternate and subopposite, awl–shaped bracts or scooplike with slender tip, 3.5—4.5 mm long, bracts pale green, gland–dotted; rachis short–ridged, ca. 1.5 mm diameter, with ridge descending from each bractlet but ended by persistent, projecting bractlet base and a pair persistent stipules, the stipules ca. 2 mm long, stiff, short–hairy, the rachis inconspicuously sparsely hairy, whitish sometime with red blotches; bractlet subtending flower ± scooplike (appearing stalked) with slender tip as long as and appressed to lower side of calyx, 3—4.5 mm long, with a pair of linear stipules ± 2 mm long, gland–dotted with glands aging reddish, blade abscising but stipules persistent.
Flower bisexual, somewhat bilateral, ca. 4 mm across (spreading petals), sweetly fragrant; calyx 5–lobed, at anthesis 3 mm long; tube wedge–shaped often 4–sided, 2 × 2 mm, white, with 10 ribs unevenly spaced to lobes and sinuses and a single gland at the top of each furrow, the 10 blisterlike glands initially colorless aging red–purple in fruit, glabrous, inner surface glossy and glabrous; lobes 3 on lower side and 2 lateral–upper, appressed, triangular, ca. 1 mm long, green, conspicuously white short–ciliate on margins; petals 5, clawed, white; banner claw slender, ± 2.5 mm long; limb ± inverted heart–shaped and cupped, 2 × 3.5—3.8 mm, rounded at tip, minutely gland–dotted on lower surface; wings 2 and 2 separate keel petals spreading, arising near top of filament sheet, claws slender, 1.5—2 mm long, limbs elliptic, 2.5—3 × 1.2—1.5 mm, minutely gland–dotted on lower surface; stamens 5; filaments fused into sheet, 2.5 m long, white, free portions unequal, 2—3 mm long, glabrous; anthers dorsifixed, dithecal, 0.7—0.8 mm long, pale greenish yellow, longitudinally dehiscent; pollen pale yellow; pistil 1; ovary superior, ellipsoid compressed side–to–side, ca. 1 × 1 × 0.7 mm, ± green, sericeous–villous on upper side below midpoint, 1–chambered with 2 ovules attached to upper side; style exserted 4.5—7 mm from calyx, white, glabrous but with 1—2 glands; stigma terminal, minute.
Fruit pod (legume), indehiscent and abscised with tightly enclosed by calyx, 1–seeded, ± D–shaped to obovoid, 3 × 2 × 1.6 mm + projecting beak (style) 1.5—2 mm long, with elongate, transverse glands near center of valves, basal portion without seed villous on upper side and often red–purple before drying; calyx tube 10–ribbed with 10 raised glands at top of tube, glabrous, lobes appressed to valves, ± deltate and cupped, 1 mm, conspicuously short–ciliate.
Seed tightly enclosed in upper portion of fruit adherent to wall, ca. 2 × 1.2 mm.
A. C. Gibson