Arizona Naturalists >>> Sonoran Desert Naturalist >>> Field Guide >>> Sonoran Desert Flora >>> Papionoideae (page 1) >>> Papionoideae (page 2)
The most diverse and familiar of the bean subfamilies, Papilionoideae. The others are Mimosoideae and Ceasalpinioideae. Flowers are strongly bilaterally symmetrical - i.e. a pea flower. Fruit is a legume, although some species have one-seeded bean pods. Leaves of many species are once compound. Herbs, vines, shrubs and trees.
Desert Rock Pea |
Lotus rigidus |
Foothill Deervetch |
Lotus humistratus |
Mostly herbaceous perennial of rocky slopes with yellow + orange pea flowers. Common spring bloomer. Important as a browse plant for mammal herbivores. Detailed Description |
Spring annual with bright yellow pea-flowers and growing mostly prostrate on soil. Leaves often with silky pubescence. Detailed Description |
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Seaside Deervetch |
Lotus salsuginosus |
Arizona Lupine |
Lupinus arizonicus |
Low-growing annual of spring with very small yellow pea-flowers. Mostly without hairs. Blooms Feb. to April Detailed Description |
Flowers are pink-purple and the palmate leaves are mostly smooth and not Annual of gravely or sandy soils in spring. Detailed Description |
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Coulter's Lupine |
Lupinus sparsiflorus |
Bajada Lupine |
Lupinus concinnus |
Narrow, compound leaflets arrayed radially, i.e. palmate. Annual of spring mostly along desert washes. Flowers blue-purple. Detailed Description |
Pinkish pea flowers on low growing lupine. Palmate leaves densly hairy. Annual of gravely or sandy soils in spring. Detailed Description |
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False Indigo |
Amorpha fruticosa |
Skunktop |
Pediomelum mephiticum |
Partly woody shrub with dark purple spikes of flowers. Malodorous. Pinnately compound leaves. Riparian areas. Detailed Description |
Herbaceous spring perennial with palmate, odorous, silvery leaves. Flowers in short, dense, plume-like spikes. Uncommon or rare. Detailed Description |
Emory Dalea |
Psorothamnus emoryi |
Parry Dalea |
Marina parryi |
Small, drought deciduous shrub or sub-shrub of southwestern Arizona. Obscure after periods od drought. Orange glands on calyx of vivid purple flowers. Detailed Description |
Diminutive perennial or subshrub blooming with dark purple flowers in spring and again in autumn. Fairly common in sandy soil along washes. Legumes small, one-seeded. Detailed Description |
White Sweet Clover |
Melilotus albus |
Yellow Sweet Clover |
Melilotus indicus |
Spikes of small, white, pea-flowers atop herbaceous plants reaching 1 to 2 meters tall. Restricted to riparian zones or ditches with irrigation. Leaves palmately 3 to 5 lobed. Detailed Description |
Spikes of small yellow pea-flowers on tall, herbaceous annual in riparian and irrigated settings. Blooming mid spring to early summer. Detailed Description |
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Burclover |
Medicago polymorpha |
Bigpod Sesbania |
Sesbania herbacea |
Winter weed of lawns and roadsides mostly in urban and agricultural settings. Flowers small and yellow; bean pod is a coiled bur. Detailed Description |
Tall annual growing in wet places only. Long slender pods, long-pinnate leaves, and small yellow-orange flowers. Along Sonoran Desert rivers and in irrigated field. Detailed Description |