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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-296
Purple Prairie Clover
Dalea purpurea
Purple Prairie Clover is a warm-season native legume that fixes its own nitrogen and roots deep enough - a taproot to five or six feet - to shrug off drought and punch through heavy clay. Livestock love it, and it is one of the rare high-tannin forages that does not cause bloat, while its June-to-September bloom keeps native bees, bumble bees and butterflies fed after the cool-season clovers are spent. The catch is patience: it takes two years to first flower and three before a stand is worth grazing, and stock will eat it out of a pasture if it is set-stocked rather than rotated.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 3–8
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Dry · Moderate
Vertical layer
Herbaceous- Soil pH
- 5.5–8.5
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 12–36 in
- Mature spread
- 12–18 in
- Plant spacing
- 3–6 ft
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- Seed
Keep exploring
Similar plants
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Adzuki Bean
Vigna angularis (Willd.) Ohwi & H.Ohashi
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Herbaceous · USDA 3–11
African Eggplant
Solanum aethiopicum
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Herbaceous · USDA 8–12
Agrimony
Agrimonia eupatoria
Agrimony is a slender herbaceous perennial of sunny, disturbed ground across Europe and western Asia, grown mainly for the tannin-rich leaves…
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Alfalfa
Medicago sativa
Alfalfa is a deep-rooted perennial legume grown worldwide as one of the richest forage crops available, its taproot running six metres or…
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Alsike Clover
Trifolium hybridum
Alsike Clover fixes nitrogen in wet, acid ground too cold and heavy for red clover to thrive in, and its flowers keep bees working all season…
Herbaceous · USDA 5–9
Amaranth Greens
Amaranthus tricolor
Amaranth greens are one of the few leafy vegetables actually built for peak summer heat rather than one that just tolerates it - sown once…
Herbaceous · USDA 2–11
The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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