Sonoran Desert Beans

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

Coulter's Lupine

Lupinus sparsiflorus

Narrow, compound leaflets arrayed radially. Annual of spring mostly along desert washes. Flowers blue-purple.    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

Burclover

Medicago polymorpha

Gregg's Prairie Clover

Dalea greggii

Winter weed of lawns and roadsides mostly in urban and agricultural settings. Flowers small and yellow; bean pod is a coiled bur.    Detailed Description

Mountain foothills near Tucson. Capitate inflorescence with purplish flowers. Upright or somewhat trailing along ground.   Detailed Description