Plant Name
Scientific Name: Dalea formosa
Synonym: Parosela formosa
Common Names: Featherplume, Feather-plume, Feather Dalea, Feathery Dalea
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Perennial, Deciduous
Growth Habit: Shrub, Subshrub
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert, Upland. It grows in dry, sunny, open areas and on rocky hillsides.
Flower Color: Purple and yellow or cream fading to all purple
Flowering Season: Spring, Summer
Height: Up to 3 feet (91 cm) tall
Description: The flowers are pea-like, up to 1/2 inch (1.3 cm) long, sparsely clustered on loose flower spikes, and have a distinctive white-feathery calyx and a yellow or cream banner petal that fades to purple. The flowers are followed by flat, feathery seedpods. The leaves are alternate and pinnately compound with an odd number of small, gland-dotted, grayish green, narrowly oval, usually folded leaflets. The stems are grayish, woody, thornless, and well-branched from the base. This plant is long-lived, but rather slow-growing.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Rosidae
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae – Pea family
Genus: Dalea L. – prairie clover
Species: Dalea formosa Torr. – featherplume
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