General: Desert Rock Pea (Lotus rigidus), also called Shrubby Deervetch, is a loosely mounded shrub to about 2-ft tall with compound (odd-1-pinnate) leaves and yellow pea-flowers that darken to red with age (providing a nice mix of yellow and red flowers during spring). The fruit is a red, elongate pea-pod.

Rock Pea is a fairly common component of vegetation communities in dry, well-drained gravelly and rocky areas on bajadas into the lower mountains in the Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub and Pinyon-Juniper Woodland) life zones.

Around Las Vegas, look for Rock Pea in numerous places including Red Rock Canyon NCA, Lake Mead NRA, and Gold Butte National Monument.

Family: Legume (Fabaceae). Also called Shrubby Deervetch, Rock Pea, Desert Rock-pea, Deer Vetch, Desert Rock Pea, Hosackia rigida, Acmispon rigidus, Ottleya rigida.