Plant Description
A tall, leggy, loose, airy, minutely hairy shrub with compound leaves that grows in dense stands along stream banks and wherever there is moisture. The majority of foliage is on the upper third of the plant.
Shrub without prickly glands; leaves compound with minutely hairy, oval-shaped, spine-tipped leaflets; flower cluster is spike-shaped with flowers on short stems; single purple petal and 10 protruding stamens with yellow anthers; fruit is a smooth pod.
Habitat
In canyons and along stream banks.
Leaves
Darker above, lighter below, about 10 inches long, with 11 to 21 oblong leaflets. Leaflets are velvety on the lower surface, often abruptly rounded at both ends with a small point at their apex; leaflet margins are sometimes almost parallel.
Flowers
Deep bluish-purple flowers have 1 petal; anthers long bright orange or yellow, 3/8 inch long by 1/8 inch wide. Dense showy flower spikes to 7 inches long are on slender stems at the ends of branches. Sepals less than 1/2 the length of the floral tube.
Fruit
Pods are glandular dotted and usually contain only 1 seed. Similar to tiny cucumbers, bright green and drying to brown. Pods are from 1/4 to 1/2 inch long and smooth.