Other prairie clovers in south Florida, Dalea feayi and Dalea carnea, have hairless stems and leaves and 3 - 9 leaflet pairs per leaf.

It is a short-lived perennial, less than eight years. 

The species produces flowers from October to March, and fruit ripens from November to April. The seed maturation period is January to May, with a peak in February and March. Flowers bloom white, during which time they are functionally male, and turn purple when the stigmas are receptive (protandry). Larger plants can produce more than 500 seeds at a time and the species forms long-term soil seed banks. Fire stimulates germination and seedling recruitment.

Pine rocklands, edges of rockland hammocks, coastal uplands, marl prairie, including disturbed portions of these such as roadsides. 

This perennial grows between 3 to 10 feet tall with a light-brown woody stem and non-woody, light-brown or reddish branches. The leaves are composed of 9–15 glaucous, oval, gland-dotted leaflet pairs. Flowers bloom white, turning maroon with age and form small, loose heads at the ends of hairy, glandular stalks, less than a half-inch long. Each flower petal is of different lengths and shapes. The fruit is a small one-seeded pod, mostly enclosed by the hairy, gland-dotted calyx (bracts at base of each flower).