''Dalea foliosa'', commonly called leafy prairie clover, is a species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

in the legume family ( Fabaceae). It is an endangered species in the United States, where it occurs in three states:

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, and

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,765 ...

.USFWS
''Dalea foliosa'' (Leafy Prairie-Clover) determined to be endangered.
''Federal Register'' May 1, 1991.

Description

This is a perennial herb growing 20 to 80 centimeters tall, with a number of erect stems sprouting from a hard

root crown A root crown, also known as the root collar or root neck, is that part of a root In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body ...

. The leaves are each made up of hairless oval leaflets measuring up to 1.3 centimeters long. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

is a cone-shaped or cylindrical spike of many purple flowers with pointed green bracts between them. Blooming occurs in summer.''Dalea foliosa''.
Illinois Wildflowers. The flowers are pollinated by

bumblebee A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct related genera ...

s.Edwards, A. L., B. Wiltshire, and D. L. Nickrent. (2004)
Genetic diversity in ''Astragalus tennesseensis'' and the federal endangered ''Dalea foliosa'' (Fabaceae).
''Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society'' 131(4) 279. The seeds can persist in a soil

seed bank A seed bank (also seed banks or seeds bank) stores seeds to preserve genetic diversity; hence it is a type of gene bank. There are many reasons to store seeds. One is to preserve the genes that plant breeders need to increase yield, disease res ...

for 8 years.

Habitat

The plant is native to glades and

prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

s with

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

substrates. The habitat may be moist or wet with seeps in the calcareous ground. It may grow alongside rose pink (''Sabatia angularis'') and brown-eyed susan (''Rudbeckia triloba''). In northern Illinois, where there are disjunct occurrences of the plant, it can be found in sunny, open

dolomite Dolomite may refer to: *Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral *Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock *Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community *Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...

prairies and river terraces that are periodically burned in the natural

fire regime A fire regime is the pattern, frequency, and intensity of the bushfires and wildfires that prevail in an area over long periods of time. It is an integral part of fire ecology, and renewal for certain types of ecosystems. A fire regime describes th ...

Conservation

This plant was much more widespread in the past. As of 1997 there were 51 occurrences, mostly within the state of Tennessee. Most of these are in very poor condition and the species is in decline.''Dalea foliosa''.
The Nature Conservancy. The main cause of its decline is the destruction and degradation of its habitat.''Dalea foliosa''.
Center for Plant Conservation. Much of its habitat has been consumed for development and is now in industrial and commercial use. Remaining habitat is overgrazed and

invaded An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing con ...

by introduced plant species such as

Chinese privet ''Ligustrum sinense'' (Chinese privet; syn. ''L. villosum''; in Mandarin: 杻; pinyin: chǒu) is a species of privet native to China, Taiwan and Vietnam,Flora of China''Ligustrum sinense''/ref> and naturalized in Réunion, the Andaman Islands, ...

(''Ligustrum sinense'') and

Amur honeysuckle ''Lonicera maackii'', the Amur honeysuckle, is a species of honeysuckle in the family Caprifoliaceae that is native to temperate western Asia; specifically in northern and western China south to Yunnan, Mongolia, Primorsky Krai in southeastern S ...

(''Lonicera maackii''). Plants have been destroyed during

road A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

maintenance and sewer installation. In most areas, the plant grows in a habitat that requires periodic

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...

for maintenance.

Fire suppression Wildfire suppression is a range of firefighting tactics used to suppress wildfires. Firefighting efforts in wild land areas require different techniques, equipment, and training from the more familiar structure fire fighting found in populated ...

efforts prevent this natural process and the habitat becomes overgrown with large and woody vegetation. The species is also fire-dependent because the seeds must be scarified if they are to

germinate Germination is the process by which an organism grows from a seed or spore. The term is applied to the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm, the growth of a sporeling from a spore, such as the spores of fungi, fer ...

. Moisture is a

limiting factor A limiting factor is a variable of a system that causes a noticeable change in output or another measure of a type of system. The limiting factor is in a pyramid shape of organisms going up from the producers to consumers and so on. A factor not l ...

for the plants once they do germinate. The plant apparently has a low rate of

reproductive success Reproductive success is an individual's production of offspring per breeding event or lifetime. This is not limited by the number of offspring produced by one individual, but also the reproductive success of these offspring themselves. Reproduct ...

as few of the plants that

survive. Many of the

seedling A seedling is a young sporophyte developing out of a plant embryo from a seed. Seedling development starts with germination of the seed. A typical young seedling consists of three main parts: the radicle (embryonic root), the hypocotyl (embryo ...

s are killed in dry summer conditions or

frost heave Frost heaving (or a frost heave) is an upwards swelling of soil during freezing conditions caused by an increasing presence of ice as it grows towards the surface, upwards from the depth in the soil where freezing temperatures have penetrated in ...

and only 5% of the plants that become seedlings reach the age of five years. The plant does not reproduce until it is 2 or 3 years old. Genetic diversity is also low. Some plants have been reintroduced to habitat where the species is hypothesized to have occurred in the prehistoric times, including part of

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. Dalea foliosa-inflorescence.jpg, ''Dalea foliosa'' at Russell R. Kirt Prairie

References

External links

USDA Plants Profile
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5210712 foliosa Flora of Alabama Flora of Illinois Flora of Tennessee Endemic flora of the United States Endangered flora of the United States