 | plants of dry plains and foothills; NOT
[plants of moist habitats in the north and the mountains] |
| plants with taproots and caudex; NOT
[plants with rootstalks] |
| stems evident, erect or decumbent,
often branched and leafy; NOT [plants densely caespitose or pulvinate;
leaves many, crowded; flowers often included among the leaves or barely
exceeding them] (Flora of Alberta) |
| plants low, cushion-like, matted or
straggling; NOT [with erect or decumbent stems] (Budd's Flora) |
| plants taller than 10 cm |
| stems long; NOT short |
| stems generally less than 5 mm thick at
base; NOT 5-10 mm thick at base |
| stems LACKING black hairs |
| stems few-leafed; NOT densely leafed |
| leaflets 15-21; NOT [11 or less] |
| leaflets shorter than 2-4 (6) cm long |
| leaflets narrowly oblong to
oblanceolate; NOT elliptic ovate |
| leaflets often truncate or retuse at
the tip; NOT [acute at the tip, sometimes arcuate] |
| leaflets NOT silvery pubescent |
| leaflets NOT needle-like; NOT
spine-tipped |
| flowers borne on more or less well
developed peduncles; NOT borne in the crown of the plant |
| inflorescence elongating at maturity |
| flowers 5-12 mm long; NOT 12-30 mm long |
| calyx teeth shorter than the
calyx-tube; NOT [about as long as or longer than the calyx-tube] |
| calyx teeth deltoid to lanceolate; NOT
linear |
| petals blue, purple or pink or
predominantly so (sometimes very pale with only flashes of deeper
colour); NOT [petals mostly yellow, cream or orange, the keel sometimes
tinged with blue or blue-tipped], NOT white |
| keel-petals less than 6 mm long; NOT
longer than 6 mm |
| apex of keel bluntly rounded; NOT
[keel-tip acuminate] |
| pods cylindric; NOT flattened |
| pods glabrous or with only white hairs;
NOT [pods with at least some black hairs] |
