Golden Bean, Buffalo Bean: Vibrant Wildflower

Vibrant yellow Golden Bean flowers now brighten roadsides, ditches and fields in rural areas outside Regina, Saskatchewan.

This flower is a member of the pea family, and has the typical pea-flower shape.

It's also called Buffalo Bean (Jennings) — but that doesn't mean that buffalo ate it. (It contains poisonous alkaloids.) Instead, it apparently means that when the Golden Bean bloomed, it was time to hunt the buffalo.

And it's bright. Really bright!

Golden Bean.   © SB

Golden Bean.   © SB

Prairie Wildflower: Golden Bean (sometimes called Buffalo Bean, aka Thermopsis rhombifolia)
Location: Condie Nature Refuge, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Photo Dates: May 22, 2013. 

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