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Sonoran Desert Beans

The most diverse and familiar of the bean subfamilies, Papilionoideae. The others are Mimosoideae and Ceasalpinioideae. Flowers are strongly bilaterally symmetrical - i.e. a pea flower. Fruit is a legume, although some species have one-seeded bean pods. Leaves of many species are once compound. Herbs, vines, shrubs and trees.

Desert Rock Pea

Lotus rigidus

Foothill Deervetch

Lotus humistratus

Watercolor Illustration © by Michael Plagens

Mostly herbaceous perennial of rocky slopes with yellow + orange pea flowers. Common spring bloomer. Important as a browse plant for mammal herbivores.    Detailed Description

Photograph © by Michael Plagens

Spring annual with bright yellow pea-flowers and growing mostly prostrate on soil. Leaves often with silky pubescence.   Detailed Description

Seaside Deervetch

Lotus salsuginosus

Arizona Lupine

Lupinus arizonicus

Photograph © by Michael Plagens

Low-growing annual of spring with very small yellow pea-flowers. Mostly without hairs. Blooms Feb. to April Detailed Description

Photograph © by Michael Plagens

Flowers are pink-purple and the palmate leaves are mostly smooth and not Annual of gravely or sandy soils in spring. Detailed Description

Coulter's Lupine

Lupinus sparsiflorus

Bajada Lupine

Lupinus concinnus

Photograph © by Michael Plagens

Narrow, compound leaflets arrayed radially, i.e. palmate. Annual of spring mostly along desert washes. Flowers blue-purple.    Detailed Description

Photograph © by Michael Plagens

Pinkish pea flowers on low growing lupine. Palmate leaves densly hairy. Annual of gravely or sandy soils in spring. Detailed Description

False Indigo

Amorpha fruticosa

Skunktop

Pediomelum mephiticum

Photograph © by Michael Plagens

Partly woody shrub with dark purple spikes of flowers. Malodorous. Pinnately compound leaves. Riparian areas. Detailed Description

Photograph © by Michael Plagens

Herbaceous spring perennial with palmate, odorous, silvery leaves. Flowers in short, dense, plume-like spikes. Uncommon or rare. Detailed Description

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Emory Dalea

Psorothamnus emoryi

Parry Dalea

Marina parryi

Watercolor © by Michael Plagens

Small, drought deciduous shrub or sub-shrub of southwestern Arizona. Obscure after periods od drought. Orange glands on calyx of vivid purple flowers.    Detailed Description

Watercolor © by Michael Plagens

Diminutive perennial or subshrub blooming with dark purple flowers in spring and again in autumn. Fairly common in sandy soil along washes. Legumes small, one-seeded.    Detailed Description

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White Sweet Clover

Melilotus albus

Yellow Sweet Clover

Melilotus indicus

Photograph image © by Michael Plagens

Spikes of small, white, pea-flowers atop herbaceous plants reaching 1 to 2 meters tall. Restricted to riparian zones or ditches with irrigation. Leaves palmately 3 to 5 lobed.    Detailed Description

Melilotus indicus, photo © by Michael Plagens

Spikes of small yellow pea-flowers on tall, herbaceous annual in riparian and irrigated settings. Blooming mid spring to early summer. Detailed Description

Burclover

Medicago polymorpha

Bigpod Sesbania

Sesbania herbacea

Photograph image © by Michael Plagens

Winter weed of lawns and roadsides mostly in urban and agricultural settings. Flowers small and yellow; bean pod is a coiled bur.    Detailed Description

Photograph image © by Michael Plagens

Tall annual growing in wet places only. Long slender pods, long-pinnate leaves, and small yellow-orange flowers. Along Sonoran Desert rivers and in irrigated field.    Detailed Description


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Copyright Michael J. Plagens, 1999-2010