Sprawling Hoary Pea

Cracca hispidula (Michx) Kuntze, Rev C.en 175. 1891
Catena hispidula Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 68. 1803. Tephrosia hispidula Pers. Svn. PI. 2: 329. L807. Tephrosia gracilis Nutt. Gen. 2: 119. 1818. Tephrosia elegans Null. Jour. Acad. Phila. 7: 105. 1834.
A perennial, with a fusiform woody root; stem somewhat ligneous at the base, 1-4 dm. long, decumbent, flexuose, branching, angled, sparingly strigose or glabrate; leaves 3-6 cm. long; stipules 2-5 mm. long, subulate, sometimes persistent; petiole 5-15 cm. long; rachis sparingly strigose; leaflets 7-17, elliptic-oblong or lance-oblong, 1-2 cm. long, 4-8 mm. wide, acutish at both ends, those of the lower leaves rounded or even retuse at the apex, apiculate, often reflexed. glabrous or sparingly strigose above, silky-strigose beneath, the veins often reddish; racemes opposite the leaves, lax, 5-10 cm. long; flowers few, 1 or 2 at each node near the end of the peduncle; bracts subulate, 2-5 cm. long; calyx sparingly hairy, the tube 2 mm. long, the lobes lance-subulate, 2 mm. long; corolla purple, 12-16 mm. long; banner roundedobovate; wings broadly obliquely obovate; pod about 4 cm. long, 4-5 mm. wide, slightly falcate (curved downward), 8-12-seeded; seeds dark brown, nearly orbicular, 3 mm. long. Typr locality: "Virginia, Carolina, and Georgia." DISTRIBUTION: Virginia (?); North Carolina to Florida and Louisiana.