Standing 1–2 feet tall with branching stems and clusters of brilliant yellow blooms, this showy flower dots mountain meadows and open woodlands with nuggets of gold. Note the 3 leaflets and spikes of pea-like flowers.

FLOWERS: May–June. Erect, spike-like clusters, 3–10-inches long (7–25 cm), with up to 20+ golden, bilaterally symmetrical flowers, each 3/4–1-inch long (20–25 mm); 5 petals with an upper banner, 2 side wings and a lower keel formed by 2 petals. Seed pods are erect, straight or curved depending on species or variety classification.

LEAVES: Alternate. Palmately compound, stem (petiole) 3/8–1 1/2-inches long (8–37 mm) tipped with 3 elliptic to lance-shaped leaflets 3/4–3 1/2-inches long (21–92 mm).

HABITAT: Moist sandy, gravelly, clay soils, mountain meadows, open forests; pinyon-juniper, ponderosa-Douglas fir, spruce-fir forests.

ELEVATION: 6,200–11,200 feet.

RANGE: Widespread from Rocky Mountains westward.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The golden flowers and leaves with 3 leaflets make this plant distinctive, but various sources classify it as one species with 3 varieties or 2 or 3 species, depending on pod shape. T. montana has erect, straight pods; T. rhombifolia var. divaricarpa has erect, curved pods; T. rhombifolia var. rhombifolia has hooked pods.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread statewide in mid- to high-elevation moist, open habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Grant, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Los Alamos, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Santa Fe, Sandoval, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union, Valencia.