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Sonoran Desert Beans

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
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
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
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

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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
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