Foothills, montane. Floodplains. Spring, summer.
Lower Dolores River Canyon, September 12, 2005.

Wild Licorice spreads by underground roots and forms extensive colonies many feet in diameter and several feet high.  Its long clusters of green/brown/white/yellow flowers are quite noticeable from spring to summer along streams, irrigation ditches, and ponds.  Seed pods are even more noticeable tight clusters of hooked prickles.

Commercial licorice is a compound originally derived from the roots of the southern European species Glycyrrhiza glabra and also somewhat from the roots of G. echinata.

"Glycyrrhiza" is Greek for "sweet root".  "Lepidota" is Greek for "scaly" and refers to small structures on the leaves.  

Linnaeus named this genus in 1753.  Nuttall and Bradbury collected this species "on the banks of the Missouri" in 1811 and Nuttall described and named it in Pursh's 1814 Flora Americae Septentrionalis.

Foothills, montane. Floodplains. Spring, summer.
Dolores River, July 11, 2006.

Foothills, montane. Floodplains. Spring, summer.
Lower Dolores River Canyon, September 12, 2005.

Clusters of spiny pods are very unusual  in the Pea Family.