United States Department of Agriculture
Natural Resources Conservation Service		 Texas Go to Accessibility Information
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Low Prairie Clover

Scientific Name: Dalea scandens (P. Mill.) Clausen
Common Name: Low Prairie Clover

Morphological Characteristics:

Habit- native perennial shrublet or subshrub reaching about 1 m tall; flowers September to December; reproduces by seed
Leaves- pinnate with leaflets 6 to 12 centimeters long
Flowers- short spikes, petals up to 6 millimeters long, yellowish turning light violet
Fruit- single seeded pod
Other- crushing green leaves will turn your hand yellow
Habitat and Range: occurs in loamy soils in openings or around brush; known from east of Calallen, west of Portland, and extreme south Texas.

Conservation Use:

Why collect this plant? Texas Plant Materials Centers have identified this plant as having potential benefits to the following conservation practice standards: 512 Pasture & Hayland Planting, 645 Upland Wildlife Habitat Management; and 550 Range Planting. Your assistance in collecting this plant helps support the NRCS
conservation practice standards which are employed daily to conserve the natural resources of Texas!

Center Requesting Seed:

E. Kika de la Garza Plant Materials Center

How to Collect Seed

  1. Identify native plant stands in your area. You can go to the following websites for helpful photos http://plants.usda.gov or http://www.noble.org/imagegallery/index.html or www.wildflower.org.
  2. Determine if seed is mature. Mature seed is typically dry and will easily separate from the seed head.
  3. Hand strip mature seed by grasping the bottom of the seed head then gently pulling away from the base of the plant. Deposit seed in a brown paper sack. Collect seed from a minimum of 30 to 50 plants.
  4. Label each collection as it is made so collections do not get mixed up. Information required includes: Collector’s name, number of plants collected, location (parish, city, highway, GPS coordinates), site description (soil type, slope, plants growing in association).
  5. Complete NRCS-ECS-580; Plant Collection Information Form and mail with collected seeds to the NRCS Plant Material Center requesting the species.

E. Kika de la Garza Plant Materials Center
3409 N FM 1355
Kingsville, TX 78363

Helpful Tips

Look for superior plants that display differences in color, height, or forage abundance and record observations. Differences in growing site or location should be made into separate collections if they are separated by more than 1 mile between sites.

Photos:

Low Prairie Clover
low prairie clover leaves low prairie clover plant low prairie clover leaves Yellow stained hand from crushing low prairie clover leaves.

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NRCS Species for 2006 Plant Collections- Low Prairie Clover (PDF; 224 KB)