Dalea cahaba J.R. Allison

Cahaba Prairie Clover

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Cahaba Prairie Clover is a native herbaceous perennial in the Bean family (Fabaceae). It is endemic to a zone approximately 18 km long and 0.8 km wide in Bibb County in Alabama. Cahaba Prairie Clover occurs on Ketona Dolomite Glades in thin-soiled areas dominated by grasses and other herbaceous vegetation. Cahaba Prairie Clover is a perennial with a thick, elongate taproot. Several decumbent or weakly ascending stems are produced from each rootstock. The stems are green or reddish in color, striate-ribbed, and simple or branched near the base. The stems are glabrous or inconspicuously pubescent with short, spreading or somewhat appressed hairs. Leaves are alternate and odd-pinnate with 3-5 leaflets. The leaflets are linear to linear-oblanceolate in outline, involute or folded, dark green in color, and aromatic. Flowers are produced in terminal spikes on long peduncles. Involucre bracts are absent, interfloral bracts pilosulous along the keel and margins and equaling or longer than the calyx. The calyx is shortly pubescent with sinuous, interwoven hairs. The corolla has 5 rose-purple petals. The fruit is an indehiscent legume that is enclosed in the persistent calyx. Cahaba Prairie Clover is listed as an S2 species in Alabama (Imperiled in state) and globally as a G2 species (At high risk of extinction).—A. Diamond

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Native Endemic S2 (State Rank) G2 (Global Rank)

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