''Dalea purpurea'' is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known as purple prairie clover.''Dalea purpurea'' at NatureServe.org . Retrieved 11-25-2011. Native to central North America, purple prairie clover is a relatively common member of the Great Plains and prairie ecosystems. It blooms in the summer with dense spikes of bright purple flowers that attract many species of insects.
Distribution
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
The Great Plains is a broad expanse of plain, flatland in North America. The region stretches east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. They are the western part of the Interior Plains, which include th ...
. In 1804,
Meriwether Lewis
Meriwether Lewis (August 18, 1774 – October 11, 1809) was an American explorer, soldier, politician, and public administrator, best known for his role as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery, with ...
collected a specimen in
Nebraska
Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...
.
Description
''Dalea purpurea'' is a perennial herb growing tall. The mature plant has a large
taproot
A taproot is a large, central, and dominant root from which other roots sprout laterally. Typically a taproot is somewhat straight and very thick, is tapering in shape, and grows directly downward. In some plants, such as the carrot, the taproot ...
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
In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...
atop each stem branch is a spike up to long containing many purple flowers. The fruit is a
legume
Legumes are plants in the pea family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seeds of such plants. When used as a dry grain for human consumption, the seeds are also called pulses. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consum ...
pod containing 1 or 2 seeds. The Latin specific epithet ''purpurea'' means purple.
Ecology
This plant is adapted to a habitat with periodic
wildfire
A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...
s. In some areas, it depends on fire to clear encroaching woody vegetation, as it cannot tolerate shade.
''Dalea purpurea'' 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
A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...
floodplain
A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...
prairie
Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...
ecosystem
An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...
s. On
tallgrass prairie
The tallgrass prairie is an ecosystem native to central North America. Historically, natural and Historical ecology#Anthropogenic fire, anthropogenic fire, as well as grazing by large mammals (primarily bison) provided periodic disturbances to th ...
it is associated with plants such as little bluestem (''Schizachyrium scoparium''),
big bluestem
''Andropogon gerardi'', commonly known as big bluestem, is a species of tall grass native to much of the Great Plains and grassland regions of central and eastern North America. It is also known as tall bluestem, bluejoint, and turkeyfoot.
Taxon ...
prairie dropseed
''Sporobolus heterolepis'', commonly known as prairie dropseed, is a species of prairie grass native to the tallgrass and mixed grass prairies of central North America from Texas to southern Canada. It is also found further east, to the Atlanti ...
shortgrass prairie
The shortgrass prairie is an ecosystem located in the Great Plains of North America. The two most dominant grasses in the shortgrass prairie are blue grama (''Bouteloua gracilis'') and buffalograss (''Bouteloua dactyloides''), the two less domin ...
it is associated with grasses such as
blue grama
''Bouteloua gracilis'', the blue grama, is a long-lived, warm-season (C4 carbon fixation, C4) Perennial plant, perennial grass, native to North America.
It is most commonly found from Alberta, Canada, east to Manitoba and south across the Rocky ...
(''Bouteloua gracilis''), hairy grama (''B. hirsuta''), and
buffalo grass
Buffalo grass may refer to
* Buffalo grass, sweet vernal grass or vanilla grass (''Anthoxanthum odoratum'')
* Buffalo grass (''Bouteloua dactyloides'')
* Buffalo grass (''Brachiaria mutica'')
* Buffalo grass or sweet grass (''Hierochloe odorata'')
...
(''B. dactyloides''). This species may be considered an
indicator
Indicator may refer to:
Biology
* Environmental indicator of environmental health (pressures, conditions and responses)
* Ecological indicator of ecosystem health (ecological processes)
* Health indicator, which is used to describe the health o ...
of pristine prairie.
The nectar and pollen of ''Dalea purpurea'' attract many bees, wasps, flies, butterflies, and skippers. Several plasterer bees (genus ''
Colletes
The genus ''Colletes'' (plasterer bees or cellophane bees) is a large group of ground-nesting bees of the family Colletidae. They occur primarily in the Northern Hemisphere, although have a broad distribution except for Australasia and Antar ...
'') are specialist pollinators of ''Dalea'' species, and other insects eat the seeds and leaves. It is a larval host to the southern dogface (''Zerene cesonia'').
Uses
This species is used for
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, manmade rewilding projects, accelerated process designed to repair damage to a la ...
efforts on reclaimed land, such as land that has been strip mined. It is good for preventing
erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...
and for fixing nitrogen in soil. Though it is often found in mid- to late-successional stages of
ecological succession
Ecological succession is the process of how species compositions change in an Community (ecology), ecological community over time.
The two main categories of ecological succession are primary succession and secondary succession. Primary successi ...
, it may also be a
pioneer species
Pioneer species are resilient species that are the first to colonize barren environments, or to repopulate disrupted biodiverse steady-state ecosystems as part of ecological succession. Various kinds of events can create good conditions for pi ...
, taking hold in bare and disturbed habitat, such as roadsides.
Purple prairie clover provides food for a number of animals, such as
pronghorn
The pronghorn (, ) (''Antilocapra americana'') is a species of artiodactyl (even-toed, hoofed) mammal indigenous to interior western and central North America. Though not an antelope, it is known colloquially in North America as the American ante ...
. It also grows in cultivated fields and becomes included in
hay
Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticate ...
for
livestock
Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...
. 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. The leaves are edible and good for making
tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...
and medicines, and the roots are palatable when chewed. The stems were used as
broom
A broom (also known as a broomstick) is a cleaning tool, consisting of usually stiff fibers (often made of materials such as plastic, hair, or corn husks) attached to, and roughly parallel to, a cylindrical handle, the broomstick. It is thus a ...
s by the
Pawnee people
The Pawnee, also known by their endonym (which translates to "Men of Men"), are an Plains Indians, Indigenous people of the Great Plains that historically lived in Nebraska and northern Kansas but today are based in Oklahoma. They are the federa ...
affinity
Affinity may refer to:
Commerce, finance and law
* Affinity (law), kinship by marriage
* Affinity analysis, a market research and business management technique
* Affinity Credit Union, a Saskatchewan-based credit union
* Affinity Equity Pa ...
for the
opioid receptor
Opioid receptors are a group of inhibitory G protein-coupled receptors with opioids as ligands. The endogenous opioids are dynorphins, enkephalins, endorphins, endomorphins and nociceptin. The opioid receptors are ~40% identical to somatostati ...
s, and pawhuskin A, by far the most potent of the group, acts as a non-selective
antagonist
An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the main enemy or rival of the protagonist and is often depicted as a villain.κ- and
μ-opioid receptor
The μ-opioid receptors (MOR) are a class of opioid receptors with a high affinity for enkephalins and beta-endorphin, but a low affinity for dynorphins. They are also referred to as μ(''mu'')-opioid peptide (MOP) receptors. The prototypical ...
s over the
δ-opioid receptor
The δ-opioid receptor, also known as delta opioid receptor or simply delta receptor, abbreviated DOR or DOP, is an inhibitory 7-transmembrane G-protein coupled receptor coupled to the G protein Gi alpha subunit, Gi/G0 and has enkephalins as it ...