Argyrolobium

Argyrolobium zanonii, called silvery argyrolobium, is a low much-branched perennial herb or small subshrub in the family Fabaceae native to dry rocky habitats of the western Mediterranean basin, occurring across Iberia, southern France, Italy, and North Africa. Plants form spreading or ascending tufts 15-40 cm tall arising from a stout woody rootstock, with slender many-branched stems densely clothed in long, soft, silvery-silky appressed hairs that give the entire plant a silvery sheen — the generic name Argyrolobium derives from the Greek for silver pod. Leaves are alternate and palmately trifoliate, with three oblong-elliptic to obovate leaflets 5-15 mm long, similarly clothed in fine silky hairs on both surfaces, and small lanceolate stipules at the leaf base. The inflorescence is a small terminal cluster of 1-4 bright golden-yellow pea-flowers, each 10-15 mm long, with a softly hairy calyx that is divided into two pronounced lips. Flowering occurs from April to June. The fruit is a flat, linear, densely silky-hairy legume 25-40 mm long containing several seeds. The species inhabits dry stony slopes, sun-baked garrigues, abandoned terraces, and open rocky pastures on limestone or schist substrates from sea level to mid-elevations.