Dalea purpurea is a species of flowering plant in the legume family

Fabaceae

The Fabaceae or Leguminosae, commonly known as the legume, pea, or bean family, is a large and economically important family of flowering plants. The group is the third largest land plant family, behind only the Orchidaceae and Asteraceae, with 730 genera and over 19,400 species...

 known by the common name purple prairie clover, better written as "prairie-clover," in recognition of the fact that it is not a true clover (genus Trifolium). It is native to central North America, where it occurs from central Canada to the southeastern and southwestern United States, except for the east and west coasts. It is a common and widespread plant within its range, especially on the Great Plains

Great Plains

The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...

.

This plant is a perennial herb growing 20 to 90 cm (7.9 to 35.4 in) tall. The mature plant has a large taproot

Taproot

A taproot is an enlarged, somewhat straight to tapering plant root that grows vertically downward. It forms a center from which other roots sprout laterally.Plants with taproots are difficult to transplant...

 which may grow two meters deep. The stem is woody with several branches. The leaves are a few centimeters long and are divided into 3 to 7 narrow leaflets. The inflorescence

Inflorescence

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

 atop each stem branch is a spike up to 7 cm (2.8 in) long containing many purple flowers. The fruit is a legume pod containing 1 or 2 seeds.

This plant is a common member of the flora on the plains of central North America, occurring in a variety of habitat types, including several types of grassland

Grassland

Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...

. It occurs in glade

Glade

-Geography:*Glade , open area in woodland, synonym for "clearing"**Glade skiing, skiing amongst treesPlaces in the United States*Glade, California, a former town in Lassen County*Glade, Kansas, a city in Phillips County...

s, riverbanks and floodplain

Floodplain

A floodplain, or flood plain, is a flat or nearly flat land adjacent a stream or river that stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls and experiences flooding during periods of high discharge...

s, oak woodlands

Oak

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...

, pinyon-juniper woodland

Pinyon-juniper woodland

A Pinyon-juniper woodland is a forest type characteristic of many parts the Western United States, often in higher elevations of desert ecoregions.-Locations:...

s, shrubsteppe, many types of forests, and the Sand Hills of Nebraska

Sand Hills (Nebraska)

The Sand Hills, often written Sandhills, is a region of mixed-grass prairie on grass-stabilized sand dunes in north-central Nebraska, covering just over one quarter of the state...

. It occurs in a variety of prairie

Prairie

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

 ecosystem

Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....

s. On tallgrass prairie

Tallgrass prairie

The tallgrass prairie is an ecosystem native to central North America, with fire as its primary periodic disturbance. In the past, tallgrass prairies covered a large portion of the American Midwest, just east of the Great Plains, and portions of the Canadian Prairies. They flourished in areas with...

 it is associated with plants such as little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), prairie Junegrass

Koeleria macrantha

Koeleria macrantha is a species of grass known by the common name prairie Junegrass. In the UK it is known as Crested hair-grass. It is native to much of North America, from Alaska to California, from northern Mexico to the Eastern United States...

 (Koeleria macrantha), prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis), lead plant

Amorpha canescens

Amorpha canescens is a 1–3 feet tall deciduous shrub in the Pea family that is native to North America. It has very small purple flowers which are grouped in racemes. The compound leaves of this plant appear leaden due to their dense hairiness...

 (Amorpha canescens), and silky aster (Aster sericeus). On midgrass prairie it grows alongside several grasses such as silver bluestem (Bothriochloa saccharoides), purple threeawn

Aristida purpurea

Aristida purpurea is a species of grass native to North America which is known by the common name purple three-awn. This grass is fairly widespread and can be found across the western two thirds of the United States, much of southern Canada and parts of northern Mexico...

 (Aristida purpurea), sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula), and sand dropseed

Sporobolus cryptandrus

Sporobolus cryptandrus is a species of grass known by the common name sand dropseed. It is native to North America, where it is widespread throughout southern Canada, most all of the United States, and northern Mexico.-Habitat:...

 (Sporobolus cryptandrus). On shortgrass prairie

Shortgrass prairie

The shortgrass prairie ecosystem of the North American Great Plains is a prairie that includes lands from the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains east to Nebraska and Saskatchewan, including rangelands in Alberta, Wyoming, Montana, North, South Dakota, and Kansas, and extending to the south...

 it is associated with grasses such as blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis), hairy grama

Bouteloua hirsuta

Bouteloua hirsuta, commonly known as Hairy grama, is a perennial short prairie grass that is native throughout much of North America, including the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies region, as well as Mexico and Guatemala.-Description:...

 (B. hirsuta), and buffalo grass (Buchloe dactyloides). This species may be considered an indicator

Indicator species

An indicator species is any biological species that defines a trait or characteristic of the environment. For example, a species may delineate an ecoregion or indicate an environmental condition such as a disease outbreak, pollution, species competition or climate change...

 of pristine prairie.

This species is used for revegetation

Revegetation

Revegetation is the process of replanting and rebuilding the soil of disturbed land. This may be a natural process produced by plant colonization and succession, or an artificial , accelerated process designed to repair damage to a landscape due to wildfire, mining, flood, or other cause...

 efforts on reclaimed land, such as land that has been strip mined. It is good for preventing erosion

Erosion

Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...

 and for fixing nitrogen

Nitrogen fixation

Nitrogen fixation is the natural process, either biological or abiotic, by which nitrogen in the atmosphere is converted into ammonia . This process is essential for life because fixed nitrogen is required to biosynthesize the basic building blocks of life, e.g., nucleotides for DNA and RNA and...

 in soil. Though it is often found in mid- to late-successional stages of ecological succession

Ecological succession

Ecological succession, is the phenomenon or process by which a community progressively transforms itself until a stable community is formed. It is a fundamental concept in ecology, and refers to more or less predictable and orderly changes in the composition or structure of an ecological community...

, it may also be a pioneer species

Pioneer species

Pioneer species are species which colonize previously uncolonized land, usually leading to ecological succession. They are the first organisms to start the chain of events leading to a livable biosphere or ecosystem...

, taking hold in bare and disturbed habitat, such as roadsides.

This plant is adapted to a habitat with periodic wildfire

Wildfire

A wildfire is any uncontrolled fire in combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or a wilderness area. Other names such as brush fire, bushfire, forest fire, desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, squirrel fire, vegetation fire, veldfire, and wilkjjofire may be used to describe the same...

s. In some areas, it depends on fire to clear encroaching woody vegetation, as it cannot tolerate shade.

Purple prairie clover provides food for a number of animals, such as pronghorn

Pronghorn

The pronghorn is a species of artiodactyl mammal endemic to interior western and central North America. Though not an antelope, it is often known colloquially in North America as the prong buck, pronghorn antelope, or simply antelope, as it closely resembles the true antelopes of the Old World and...

. It also grows in cultivated fields and becomes included in hay

Hay

Hay is grass, legumes or other herbaceous plants that have been cut, dried, and stored for use as animal fodder, particularly for grazing livestock such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep. Hay is also fed to pets such as rabbits and guinea pigs...

 for livestock

Livestock

Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...

. It is nutritious and is "considered one of the most important legumes in native grasslands on the Great Plains." It also had a number of uses for Native Americans

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

. The leaves are edible and good for making tea

Tea

Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...

 and medicines, and the roots are palatable when chewed. The stems were used as broom

Broom

A broom is a cleaning tool consisting of stiff fibers attached to, and roughly parallel to, a cylindrical handle, the broomstick. It is thus a variety of brush with a long handle. It is commonly used in combination with a dustpan....

s by the Pawnee people.