Small, low perennial, with thick woody taproot, finely hairy, glandless throughout; stems several to many, ascending to spreading; bipinnate leaves with long petioles and tiny leaflets; bright yellow 5-petaled flowers; curved, flattened seed pods.
Small, low perennial, with a thick woody root and basal stem; twice pinnate leaves; long leaf stems and tiny leaflets; bright yellow 5-petaled flowers; strongly curved and flattened seed pods; finely pubescent herbage without glands.
Habitat
Found in rocky soils.
Flower Characteristics
Yellow (sometimes with red inclusions), in few-flowered erect to ascending racemes that surpass the leaves; flowers not quite radially symmetrical; 5 sepals, linear-oblong, 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, hairy; 5 petals, 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, short-clawed.
Leaf and Stem Characteristics
Bipinnately compound, 3/4 to 2-1/2 inches long; each leaf has 7 to 11 primary branches, each branch has 4 to 10 pairs of broadly oblong leaflets, <1/4 inch long, minutely and sparsely hairy or without hairs.
Fruit and Seed Characteristics
Pods flattened, oblong, and strongly falcate (hooked at the end), often forming a semicircle, 1/4 inch wide and 3/4 to 1-1/2 inches long, minutely hairy with few scattered sessile glands; containing several seeds.
Each pod has several seeds.