This hairy, low-growing perennial averages 2–8-inches tall with numerous branches that spread from a tap-rooted base and silky-hairy spikes of small, yellow, pea-like flowers. Note the sprawling branches, hairy, compound leaves, and small yellow flowers.

FLOWERS: Spring, summer. Densely hairy spikes, 3/8–1 1/4-inches long (1–3 cm), at the tip of a sprawling, upturned branches, several yellow, pea-like flowers bloom at a time from the bottom up; 5 petals with 1 upper banner, 2 side wings, 2 united into the keel; fruit is a hairy pod.

LEAVES: Alternate, odd-pinnately compound. Blade with with 5–7(9) oval leaflets 1/4–5/8-inch (5–15 mm) long with a rounded top, hairy on both sides, creased down the middle, without glands.

HABITAT: Gravelly, sandy-loam soils; desert grasslands and scrub, pinyon-juniper woodlands.

ELEVATION: 3,400–6,000 feet

RANGE: AZ, CO, KS, NM, OK, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Golden Dalea, D. aurea, in eastern plains, grows upright 1–2 1/2 feet tall and the underside of leaves are minutely glandular dotted. James Prairie-Clover, D. jamesii, widespread in NM, has palmate leaves with 3 leaflets. Wright’s Prairie-Clover, D. wrightii, in the southern half of NM, has 4-inch tall, densely silky, leafy stems and leaves with 5–7 leaflets with pointed tips. The prostrate Downy Prairie-Clover,  D. neomexicana, in southern NM, has whitish-yellow flowers,  and 7–15 oval, densely-hairy leaflets with scallop-toothed margins.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread at low- to mid-elevations except cent. mountains: Bernalillo, Catron, Chaves, Cibola, Curry, De Baca, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Harding, Hidalgo, Lea, Los Alamos, Luna, Otero, Quay, Rio Arriba, Roosevelt, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Torrance, Union, Valencia.