High-climbing vine; lfls 9-15, ovate-oblong or lance-ovate, 4-6 cm, acuminate, obscurely hairy beneath; racemes compact, 4-15 cm; pedicels 4-10 mm; axis, pedicels, and cal finely pubescent and also with some short-stipitate, oblong or clavate glands; fls blue-purple, 1.5-2 cm; cal campanulate, the upper 2 lobes broadly triangular to almost completely connate, forming an upper lip to about a third as long as the tube; lower lobes lanceolate, the median slightly the longer; blade of the wing-pet prolonged backward into a linear auricle about as long as the claw and ±parallel to it; fr glabrous; 2n=16. Moist or wet woods and river-banks; Va. to Fla. and Tex., n. in the interior to Ark. Late Apr., May.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

From Flora of Indiana (1940) by Charles C. Deam

I collected this species in a second growth wooded ravine May 19, 1918. There were several vines supported by low trees and shrubs about 10 feet high. My specimen has pubescent branches and branchlets; 4 leaves, 15-23 cm long, all with 9 leaflets; leaflets slightly pubescent on both sides, more or less acuminate; inflorescence 21 cm long; pedicels about 10 mm long, glandular; calyx tube glandular, about 4 mm long, the longest lobes about 2 mm long; spur of wings of corolla about as long as the claw; pod glabrous.

……

Indiana Coefficient of Conservatism: C = 4

Wetland Indicator Status: FACW