WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Sprawling to upright stems 8–24-inches tall have dangling clusters of small, pea-like, white flowers with red veins on the upper banner petal. Note the leaves with pairs of broad leaflets and no tendril on the tips.

FLOWERS: June–September. Loose clusters with 2–5 flowers; 5 white petals: an upper banner with reddish-pink streaks, 2 side wings, and 2 fused petals forming the keel. Fruit a pod 1 1/4–2 1/2-inches long (3–6 cm).

LEAVES: Alternate. Pinnately compound with 4–10 leaflets in pairs along midrib; leaflets elliptic, oblong, to lance-shaped, 1/2–3-inches long (12–75 mm), to 3/4-inch wide (18 mm), surfaces hairy or hairless, margins entire, tips pointed. Leaves of other varieties may terminate with coiled tendrils, a bristly tendril, or no tendrils. Note the pair of small leaf-like stipules at the base to the leaves.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly, loam soils; ponderosa-Douglas fir, aspen, spruce-fir, subalpine and alpine meadows.

ELEVATION: 7,600–10,500 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, NM, UT, TX; Rocky Mountains and all states west.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Grass-leaf Peavine, L. graminifolius, widespread in NM at low- to mid elevations, has leaves ending with tendrils and narrow, linear leaflets. Vetches, Vicia species, also have leaves with tendrils.

NM COUNTIES: Northern and western 2/3 NM in mountains at med- to high-elevations (absent from eastern plains): Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Dona Ana, Grant, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Los Alamos, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union, Valencia.