Stylosanthes biflora

Stylosanthes biflora, commonly called sidebeak pencilflower, is a small perennial herb in the Fabaceae family, native to the south-eastern and central United States. It grows from a slender taproot, producing several wiry, ascending or sprawling stems 15 to 50 cm long, finely hairy and often somewhat branched. The leaves are alternate and trifoliate, with three narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate leaflets 1 to 3 cm long, each tipped with a small bristle. Conspicuous bristly stipules sheath the stem at each node. The pea-like flowers are small, bright orange-yellow, usually borne in pairs or small clusters at the stem tips and in upper leaf axils from late spring through summer. Each flower has a long slender hypanthium tube and a hooked beak on the developing fruit, which gives the genus its common name. Fruits are small, two-jointed loments, the upper segment fertile and bearing a characteristic curved beak. It grows in dry, open woods, sandy pinelands, glades and rocky barrens.