The photo above shows the upper
stem with corolla and bracts of hairy owl-clover as seen from
the Columbia Hills, north of the Dallesport, WA............May 1995
Hairy Owl-clover is a small annual wildflower with simple to branched stems, the branches held erect. It ranges from 10-40 cm high. The herbage is fairly densely covered with long, soft and shaggy hairs. The stem leaves are narrowly linear-lanceolate with entire margins on the lower leaves, the upper leaves with 1-2 pairs of narrow lobes. The leaves are 2.5-6 cm long.
The inflorescence is long and loose below. The bracts are wide at the base and deeply cleft with 1-3 pairs of long, narrowly linear lobes. The calyx is 8-13 mm long and about equally cleft in front and on the back. The corolla is 1.2-2 cm long,, narrow at the base and gradually expanding to the fairly narrow throat. The upper lip consists of a slender straight and pointed galea from 3-4 mm long. The lower lip consists of 3 sacs which are shorter than the galea. The corolla varies from white to creamy or yellow.
Hairy Owl-clover is found in moist meadows and in the beds of vernal pools from the lowlands to moderate elevations in the mountains.
Hairy Owl-clover is found from southern British Columbia south on both sides of the Cascades to southern California and east to Idaho and Nevada.
In the Columbia River Gorge, it may be seen between the elevations of 200'-3000' from Hood River Mountain Meadows eastward to Stacker Butte and the Columbia Hills to the north of The Dalles, OR.
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