WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

 

Sprawling to upright stems 8–24-inches tall have dangling clusters of small, pea-like, white flowers with red veins on the upper banner petal. Note the leaves with pairs of broad leaflets and no tendril on the tips.


FLOWERS: June–September. Loose clusters with 2–5 flowers; 5 white petals: an upper banner with reddish-pink streaks, 2 side wings, and 2 fused petals forming the keel. Fruit a pod 1 1/4–2 1/2-inches long (3–6 cm).


LEAVES: Alternate. Pinnately compound with 4–10 leaflets in pairs along midrib; leaflets elliptic, oblong, to lance-shaped, 1/2–3-inches long (12–75 mm), to 3/4-inch wide (18 mm), surfaces hairy or hairless, margins entire, tips pointed. Leaves of other varieties may terminate with coiled tendrils, a bristly tendril, or no tendrils. Note the pair of small leaf-like stipules at the base to the leaves.


HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly, loam soils; ponderosa-Douglas fir, aspen, spruce-fir, subalpine and alpine meadows.


ELEVATION: 7,600–10,500 feet.


RANGE: AZ, CO, NM, UT, TX; Rocky Mountains and all states west.


SIMILAR SPECIES: Grass-leaf Peavine, L. graminifolius, widespread in NM at low- to mid elevations, has leaves ending with tendrils and narrow, linear leaflets. Vetches, Vicia species, also have leaves with tendrils.


NM COUNTIES: Northern and western 2/3 NM in mountains at med- to high-elevations (absent from eastern plains): Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Dona Ana, Grant, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Los Alamos, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union, Valencia.

WHITE PEAVINE

LATHYRUS LANSZWERTII VAR. LEUCANTHUS

(includes L. leucanthus and L. arizonicus)

Legume Family, Fabaceae

Perennial vine

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