This bushy shrub to small tree reaches 3–25 feet tall with a dense crown with spiny branches. It spreads by rhizomes to form dense thickets along roadsides, on open slopes, fire scars, and other disturbed areas. Note the pinnately compound leaves and the showy cascading clusters of fragrant, rose to light pink, pea-type flowers.

FLOWERS: April–July. Drooping clusters have 4–14 pea-type flowers, each 3/4–1 inch long (2–2.5 cm) with 5 petals: 1 lobed upper banner petal, 2 side wings, 2 center petals forming the keel around the stamens and pistil. Fruit is a flat pod 2 1/2–4 inches long (6–10 cm), glandular-hairy.

LEAVES: Alternate, 4–10 inches long (10–25 cm) with a pair of sharp spines at the base of the leaf. Blades pinnately compound with 9 to 21 leaflets, elliptic to oblong, 5/8–1 1/4 inches long (1.5–3 cm); surfaces finely hairy.

HABITAT: Semi-arid canyons, mesas, slopes, riparian, forest understories, disturbed areas; pinion-juniper-oak, ponderosa pine-fir-aspen, spruce-fir forests.

ELEVATION: 3,655–10,000 feet (1114–3072 m)

RANGE: AZ, CA, CO, NV, NM, TX, UT, WY.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The thicket forming habit, showy flowers, and sharp spines and the base of pinnate leaves help distinguish this species.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread, common, nearly statewide (absent eastern plains) in mid- to high-elevation habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Harding, Hidalgo,  Lea, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Luna, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Santa Fe, Sandoval, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union, Valencia.