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Dalea compacta; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-07-17

Dalea compacta Spreng.

Compact prairie clover; Plains prairie clover

Fabaceae · Oklahoma, Texas +1

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Dalea compacta, photograph (c) Sam Kieschnick, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dalea compacta, photograph (c) Sam Kieschnick, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dalea compacta, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedDalea compacta, photograph (c) Gary Barton, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dalea compacta, photograph (c) Annika Lindqvist, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dalea compacta, photograph (c) Annika Lindqvist, some rights reserved (CC BY) 75 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-6.1°C
Record low -17.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
34°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,001mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
17–44DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Dalea compacta, with the common name compact praireclover, is a plant of the Southwestern United States. It is a perennial herb growing up to 2 feet (0.61 metres) tall.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Dalea compacta", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Dalea

Dalea is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. Members of the genus are commonly known as prairie clover or indigo bush. Its name honors English apothecary Samuel Dale (1659–1739). More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Dalea", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (754 mm of 997 mm) takes 8 months, February to June and September to November. Mean temperature moves 21.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to May and August to December.

Rain

997 mm in the median year at the habitat, 754 mm of it February to June and September to November. Wettest month May at 124 mm, driest month August at 56 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 881 mm to 1,261 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,001 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 997 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 44 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -6.1 °C, the absolute minimum -17.3 °C, 1,579 frost nights in 44 years, 35.9 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 3.9 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 2.5 °C to 7.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 34.2 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -6.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 54 to 59% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -48 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Dalea compacta through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 34 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 3.9 °C; 997 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost42.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-17.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 17–44RH 54–59%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 290 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C14 / 12–1717 / 15–1921 / 19–2225 / 23–2629 / 27–2932 / 31–3234 / 33–3534 / 33–3531 / 30–3125 / 24–2719 / 18–2214 / 13–17
Night °C4 / 3–76 / 4–910 / 8–1214 / 13–1619 / 18–2022 / 22–2324 / 23–2525 / 24–2521 / 20–2215 / 14–1710 / 9–125 / 4–8
Rain mm58 / 44–8869 / 56–8489 / 72–10381 / 64–97124 / 104–147114 / 105–12861 / 50–9656 / 50–7982 / 72–105119 / 99–13776 / 64–11868 / 53–99
DLI19 / 18–1923 / 22–2429 / 28–3035 / 35–3737 / 37–3841 / 40–4244 / 41–4440 / 39–4133 / 33–3426 / 25–2719 / 19–2017 / 16–17
RH %58 / 56–5957 / 56–5957 / 55–5956 / 54–5959 / 57–6158 / 57–6155 / 54–6054 / 53–5955 / 54–5956 / 55–5857 / 56–5958 / 56–59
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 290 grid cells holding the 539 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1144:1665 (32.775, -96.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -17.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -6.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 290 distinct grid cells holding 539 of the 539 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1144:1665 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 33.00_-96.875, lapse-corrected -48 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 136 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeOklahoma, Texas, Louisiana · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker32.868, -97.045 · in the densest population, 410 records (65% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 626 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 539 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 247 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 9 km away. 12 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 87 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 626 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Dalea compacta, photograph 1did not loadDalea compacta, photograph 2did not loadDalea compacta, photograph 3did not loadDalea compacta, photograph 4did not loadDalea compacta, photograph 5did not loadDalea compacta, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Sam Kieschnick, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Gary Barton, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Annika Lindqvist, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Sisyrinchium pruinosum Sisyrinchium pruinosum Roadside Blue-eyed Grass Photo: CC BY, Michael A. ThaibinhMaclura pomifera Maclura pomifera Osage-orange Photo: CC BY, Dan MacNealDesmanthus leptolobus Desmanthus leptolobus Prairie-mimosa Photo: CC0, author not statedSymphyotrichum divaricatum Symphyotrichum divaricatum Slimaster Photo: CC BY, Chris StahlParonychia virginica Paronychia virginica Whitlow-wort Photo: CC BY, Aspen FrischPhysaria gracilis Physaria gracilis Spreading bladderpod Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Dalea 26 in the reference

Dalea aurea Dalea aurea Golden Prairie Clover Photo: CC0, author not statedDalea bicolor Dalea bicolor Silver prairie-clover Photo: CC0, author not statedDalea boliviana Dalea boliviana Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Ariadna TripaldiDalea candida Dalea candida White prairie-clover Photo: CC0, author not statedDalea capitata Dalea capitata Lemon Dalea Photo: CC BY-SA, Juan Cruzado CortésDalea carthagenensis Dalea carthagenensis Cartagena prairie clover Photo: CC BY-SA, Turner BrockmanDalea coerulea Dalea coerulea Andean Blue Clover Photo: CC BY, Sebastián OrdóñezDalea feayi Dalea feayi Feay's prairie clover Photo: CC0, author not statedDalea foliosa Dalea foliosa Leafy prairie-clover Photo: CC BY, Katie KuceraDalea formosa Dalea formosa Feather-plume Photo: CC BY, Joseph AubertDalea frutescens Dalea frutescens Black dalea Photo: CC BY, IDClaireDalea gattingeri Dalea gattingeri Purpletassels Photo: CC0, author not stated all 27 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Kuhnistera compacta; Petalostemon compactus; Petalostemon purpureum var. pubescens. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
Spreng.
Native to
Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana
Wild records
626 in range · 247 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 12 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (12 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 33.00_-96.875, lapse-corrected -48 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Dalea compacta Spreng. (the item's: IPNI 76088-2, POWO 490608-1)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 27 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…