FAMILY: Fabaceae

to Argentina). DESCRIPTION: Rare suffrutescent perennial shrub, 0.5-1.8 m (1.6-6.0 ft) tall, slender, openly branched, with (1)2-3 pairs of pinnae, long pods and relatively large seeds. Flowers yellow to yellowish white; stamens and staminodia of lower flowers are 6-8 mm long, and pods are numerous, 7-12 cm (2.8-4.7 in) long; occasionally single pod is 3-4 cm (1.2-1.6 in) long. (Isely, 1970). For the genus: “Perennial herbs, unarmed; stipules setaceous; leaves bipinnate; flowers whitish, numerous, borne in axillary, long-pedunculate heads; calyx united, campanulate, 5-toothed; petals 5, distinct or connate only near the base; stamens 5, long-exserted; fruit obliquely oblong, glabrous, borne in compact subglobose clusters; seeds few. ” (Welsh et al., 1993). AIDS TO IDENTIFICATION: Slender, openly branched shrub similar to D. palmeri in all respects except that stamens and staminodia of lower flowers are only 6-8 mm long, and pods are more numerous and 7-12 cm long. Occasionally a single pod in a head may be no more than 3-4 cm long. (Shreve and Wiggins, 1964)