Illustration by Jeanne R. Janish, 



From 'Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest' 



PSORALEA HYPOGAEA 

 LITTLE INDIAN BREADROOT 



Little Indian Breadroot is a perennial herb with a deep, club-shaped root that is up to 6 cm long and surmounted by a 

 subterranean connecting stem. Above ground, the plant consists of a rosette of long-petioled leaves that are palmately 

 divided into 3-7 linear-elliptic leaflets that are 25-50 mm long. The foliage is covered with dot-like glands and dense, 

 white appressed hairs, but the upper leaf surfaces become glabrous with age. Blue, pea-like flowers are borne in 

 condensed spikes arising among the bases of the leaf petioles at or barely above ground-level. The tubular calyx is 6-9 

 mm long and has 4 long, narrow lobes and a fifth that is longer and broader. The upper petal is 10-13 mm long and held 

 forward. The hairy pods are egg-shaped, ca. 5 mm long, and each has a beak that is 5-13 mm long. 



Flowering end of May-June. 



PSORALEA ESCULENTA has a distinct flowering stem with spreading pubesence on the stem and leaf petiole, while 

 PSORALEA HYPOGAEA is stemless and has appressed pubesence. 



