From Blue to Purple 



purple blooms during July and August. The flowers are much 

 smaller than those of the showy trefoil; however, when seen in 

 masses, they form conspicuous patches of color in dry woods. 

 Note that there is a flower stalk which is usually leafless and also 

 a leaf-bearing stem rising from the base of the plant, the latter 

 with its leaves all crowded at the top, if you would distinguish 

 this very common species from its multitudinous kin. The tre- 

 foliate leaves are pale beneath. The two or three jointed pod 

 rises far above the calyx on its own stalk, as in the next species. 



The Pointed-leaved Tick-trefoil (M. grandiflora, or D. acu- 

 minatum of Gray) has for its distinguishing feature a cluster of 

 leaves high up on the same stem from which rises a stalk bearing 

 a quantity of purple flowers that are large by comparison only. 

 The leaves have leaflets from two to six inches long, rounded 

 on the sides, but acutely pointed, and with scattered hairs above 

 and below. This trefoil is found blooming in dry or rocky woods, 

 throughout a wide range, from June to September. 



Lying outstretched for two to six feet on the dry ground of 

 open woods and copses east of the Mississippi, the Prostrate Tick- 

 trefoil (M. Michauxii or D. rotundifolium of Gray) can certainly 

 be named by its soft hairiness, the almost perfect roundness of 

 its trefoliate leaves, its rather loose racemes of deep purple flow- 

 ers that spring both from the leaf axils and from the ends of the 

 sometimes branching stem; and by its three to five jointed pod, 

 which is deeply scalloped on its lower edge and somewhat in- 

 dented above, as well. 



Blue, Tufted, or Cow Vetch or Tare; Cat 

 Peas; Tinegrass 



(Viola Cracca) Pea family 



Flowers Blue, later purple; YZ in. long, growing downward in 

 i -sided spike, 15 to 40 flowered; calyx oblique, small, with 

 unequal teeth ; corolla butterfly-shaped, consisting of standard, 

 wings, and keel, all oblong; the first clawed, the second 

 oblique, and adhering to the shorter keel; 10 stamens, I 

 detached from other 9. Stem: Slender, weak, climbing or 

 trailing, downy, 2 to 4 ft. long. Leaves : Tendril bearing, 

 divided into 18 to 24 thin, narrow, oblong leaflets. Fruit: 

 A smooth pod i in. long or less, 5 to 8 seeded. 



Preferred Habitat Dry soil, fields, waste land. 



Flowering Season June August. 



Distribution United States from New Jersey, Kentucky, and Iowa 

 northward and northwestward. Europe and Asia. 



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