Dalea Species, Golden Dalea, Golden Prairie Clover, Silktop Dalea

It grows in the worst caliche marly soil that I have without irrigation and lived through all our droughts. I love its fuzzy yellow flowe...Read Morers pushing up energetically on its tall stems in a star like structure from its low rosette.

Found several of these plants growing wild at the ranch. We're always under drought conditions but it seems the good dose of rain we got...Read More a month ago helped the native plants and weeds to sprout and/or start bloom. A wonderful thing as I probably never would have noticed these plants.

Am thrilled as this is one of the larval host/caterpillar food plant for the Reakirt's Blue butterfly!!!

~ Cat

I grew this plant in New Orleans for many years and just loved it. It is a real insect attracter - sometimes the whole bush would shimme...Read Morer and shudder with all the insects nectaring on it. Butterflies, bees, you name it. Copious rain did not seem to bother it but it was in a very well drained place over an old underground cellar. It was over 3' tall, about 4' wide under those conditions, with a nicely rounded shape.

Golden Dalea is, a native perennial, is an upright, woody, taprooted plant. It is a legume which is found on the sandy or limestone soil...Read Mores of open prairies and pastures. In Texas, it is found in the Edwards Plateau and South Texas Plains regions. It is about 12-30 inches in height. It is single-stemmed or sometimes branched above. The stem has a whitish-green appearance due to silky pubescence. The leaves are oddly-pinnate, alternate, covered with dense hair and are dotted with glands and .5 to 2.0 inches long (smaller on the top of the plant). Each leaf has 3 to 9 obovate leaflets that are grayish-green, around .25 to .5 inch long, blunt tipped or often mucronate (tipped with a short, slender, sharp point). The foiage is sparse which probably helps it tolerate high heat and drought. It flowers from late May through July (in some areas, April through June).

It has a solitary silky-gray terminal spike that is oblong or cone-like, covered with minute, silky hairs, densely flowered and 5 to 2.5 inches long. The blooms encircle the spike and bloom from the base upward a few at a time. The 3/8 to 1/2 inch long blooms have a yellow corolla with five petals and ten united stamens. The calyx is densely silky-pubescent with the calyx lobes having pointed tips and feathered margins. found in both the The leaves and flowers are eaten by white-tailed deer.