Blue or Purple Flowers
(
Pea-like Flowers )
Pea Family (Leguminosae)
Sweetvetch/Mackenzie's Hedysarum
Hedysarum mackenzii or H. boreale
Season: May to early July
Habitat: Montane on both sides of Continental Divide
Height: Up to 60 cm
Description: Often mistaken for wild vetch, sweetvetch lacks the tendrils at the end of each compound leaf. Otherwise, they are similar. Each has compound leaves with many narrow, smooth-margined leaflets. The sweetvetch has one additional leaflet at the tip of the compound leaf where the tendrils would occur on the wild vetch. The stems and leaf-stalks are also quite erect on the sweetvetch. The purple, pea flowers occur in loose spikes at the end of a leafless stem.
Flower:
Leaf:
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