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Featherplume

Dalea formosa

Also called Feather-plume Dalea, Feather Plume, Feather Indigo, Feather Dalea, Feathery Dalea

Featherplume
Photo: JerryFriedman, CC BY-SA 3.0

Featherplume (Dalea formosa) is a tough, semi-evergreen desert shrub from the southern United States and northern Mexico, valued for its feathery foliage and long-lasting blooms. It thrives with full sun, sharp drainage and very little water once established.

Family
Fabaceae (Pea & bean family)
Grows as
Shrub
Light
Full sun
Water
Water deeply but infrequently, letting the soil dry out fully between waterings; it tolerates drought once established.
Soil
Well-drained sandy or gravelly soil; tolerates poor and alkaline soils.
Temperature
Tolerates heat and cold; hardy to about -12 °C, but protect young plants from hard freezes.
How easy
Easy
Native range
WC. & C. U.S.A. to N. Mexico
Climate
desert or dry shrubland

About

Dalea formosa is a semi-evergreen[1] species of flowering plant in the genus Dalea, known by the common names feather dalea and featherplume; it is named for the physician Samuel Dale. The plant is native to the southern United States. It is highly tolerant of heat, cold, and drought. It is favored by honeybees; but of much less use to most wildlife, with the exception of rabbits and deer. Unique to most plants, it blooms all year long (with the occurrence of monsoon rainfall) and also has a long lifespan.

Other Dalea plants

Tampa prairie clover · Whitetassels · Whiteflower prairie clover · Golden prairie clover · South Texas prairie clover · White prairie clover · White prairie clover · Whitetassels · Cartagena prairie clover · Dalea chrysophylla · Andean Blue Clover · Compact prairie clover

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dalea formosa by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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