General: Soft Prairie Clover (Dalea mollissima) is a prostrate desert annual forb with grey-green leaves divided into leaflets. The leaflets usually have small, dark spots on the edges, and the margins are wavy. The pea-type flowers are white with feathery structures (calyx lobes) that extend as far as or beyond the tips of the flower petals.

Another species of Prairie Clover, Hairy Prairie Clover (Dalea mollis) looks similar except that the leaf margins are not wavy, and the feathery structures (calyx lobes) do not extend to the tips of the flower petals.

Hairy Prairie Clover is a common component of vegetation communities on desert flats and on bajadas in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zones.

Family: Fabaceae (Legume).

Other Names:

Plant Form: Annual herb, spreading.

Height: To a few inches.

Stems: Becoming reddish and red-gland dotted.

Leaves: Leaves are odd-pinnate (one leaflet at the tip) with 8-14 leaflets, each 3-10 mm long. Leaflets generally folded, and the margins are shallowly lobed or wavy. Upper side of leaves usually with small, dark spots on the edges; also often tiny dark dots on the underside and along the stems.

Flowers: Blooms in spring; also during fall when conditions are right. Pea-type flowers white with purple towards the tips. Feathery structures (calyx lobes) surround each flower and extend as far as, or beyond, the tips of the flower petals.

Seeds:

Habitat: Dry, well-drained sandy and gravelly soils on bajadas and moderate slopes.

Elevation: Less than 3,000 ft.

Distribution: California to southwestern Utah and western Arizona, and south into northern Mexico.

Comments: Common on roadsides in gravely soils.