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Perennial
Purple Prairie Clover
Dalea purpurea
Also called: Violet Prairie Clover
A fine-textured prairie legume with thimbles of purple bloom ringed in orange pollen. Fixes nitrogen, feeds specialist bees, and hosts several small butterflies.
Growing & care
Deep taproot makes it very drought tough but hard to move. Best sown in place. A key building block of a native meadow matrix.
Bloom season
In bloom: Jun–Aug · Colors: purple
Where to buy
Look for purple prairie clover (Dalea purpurea) at: Prairie Moon Nursery, native Texas nurseries.
Sources
Range, nomenclature, and the USDA symbol above come from the federal plant record for this species. Check it yourself:
Good for
Plant it with
Natives that pair with purple prairie clover
Same conditions, same uses — species that share purple prairie clover's growing requirements and belong in the same bed.
Maximilian Sunflower
Helianthus maximiliani
A towering prairie sunflower that lines its tall stems with gold in fall, feeding late pollinators and then a run of seed-eating birds.
Sideoats Grama
Bouteloua curtipendula
The state grass of Texas, hanging its tiny oat-like seeds along one side of each stem, tinged with orange-red pollen.
Fall Aster
Symphyotrichum oblongifolium
A mounding aster that vanishes into the background all summer, then bursts into a haze of blue-purple daisies in October — a lifeline of late nectar for pollinators..
Little Bluestem
Schizachyrium scoparium
The backbone grass of the American prairie, turning coppery-mahogany in fall and silver-tufted in winter.
Mexican Hat
Ratibida columnifera
A whimsical prairie flower whose drooping petals form a sombrero beneath a tall central cone.
Engelmann Daisy
Engelmannia peristenia
A deep-taprooted prairie daisy that blooms yellow for months and shrugs off drought better than almost anything — its flowers even fold in the midday heat to conserve water..