Amorpha canescens Pursh 



LEAD PLANT 



Bean Family (Fabaceae) 



CONSERVATION STATUS 



U. S, Fish and Wildlife Service: None. 



Bureau of Land Management: None. 



Montana Natural Heritage Program: G5 SH: Demonstrably secure globally, but known in 

 Montana only from records generally older than 50 years. 



DESCRIPTION: Lead plant is a shrub with few to several, erect or ascending, simple or sparingly 

 branched stems, 3-8 dm (1-2 ft.) high. In marginal sites, the plant may die back to near the base each 

 year. The alternate leaves have a short petiole and 27-41 narrowly elliptic leaflets, 8-15 mm (ca. 0.5 

 in.) long. Foliage is covered with very dense, short white hairs, giving the plant a hoary appearance. 

 The violet flowers are borne in dense spike-like inflorescences, 7-15 cm (3-6 in.) long, arising on 

 long stems from the leaf axils. Each small flower has a single petal longer than the densely hairy 

 calyx that is ca. 2 mm long. There are 10 bright orange stamens exserted beyond the petal. The 

 glandular and hairy fruits are ca. 4 mm long and egg-shaped with a long beak. Flowering in late 

 June- July; fruiting through summer. 



Lead plant could be confused with members of the prairie-clover genus or scurfpea genus (Dalea or 

 Psoralea), but unlike these plants, it has woody stems, it does not have leaves with conspicuous 

 resin-like glands, and it has flowers with only one petal. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 



Global distribution: Great Plains and Midwest, from Indiana south to Texas, west to 

 Manitoba and eastern Montana; south to New Mexico (Dom 1984, 1992, Great Plains Flora 

 Association 1986). 



Montana distribution: Historically known 

 from southeastern Montana by two pre- 1950 

 collections from Carter and Rosebud cos.; 

 also reported on a 1983 checklist for the 

 Colstrip vicinity, Rosebud County (Coenenberg 

 1983) with no known collections. The latter 

 would provide basis for changing the species 

 rank to "SI" if documented by a collection. 



Amorpha canescens 

 Lead Plant 



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