Hedysarum
Hedysarum alpinum
hedysarum, sainfoin, sweetvetch
alpine hedysarum, alpine sweet-vetch
decumbent to erect or ascending, solid, terete, pubescent, hairs basifixed;
from branching subterranean to superficial caudex.
ascending to erect, 1–9(–11) dm.
alternate, odd-pinnate;
stipules present, slightly adnate to petiole base, ± connate-sheathing, often suffused with purple, lanceolate, simple or bidentate, scarious;
petiolate, petiole much shorter than or subequal to blade;
leaflets 5–27, opposite or alternate, petiolulate, blade margins entire, surfaces mostly pubescent, sometimes glabrous adaxially.
4–16 cm;
stipules 5–25 mm;
leaflets 7–27, blades lanceolate to oblong, elliptic, or lanceolate-elliptic, 10–50 × 3–15 mm, veins conspicuous, surfaces sparsely strigose abaxially, especially along midvein, glabrous adaxially.
5–50-flowered, axis 2–30 cm in fruit;
bracts 1–4 mm.
5–60-flowered, axillary, racemes, sometimes subcapitate;
bracts present, 1 per flower;
bracteoles usually 2.
6–17 cm.
1–3.5 mm.
papilionaceous;
calyx campanulate, lobes 5;
corolla usually pink, pink-purple, lavender-pink, red-purple, lilac, lilac-purple, or yellow, rarely white, keel much exceeding wings, somewhat longer than banner, broadly truncate, apex prominent, oblique;
stamens 10, diadelphous;
anthers dorsifixed;
ovary enclosed in staminal sheath;
style glabrous.
ascending to declined at anthesis;
calyx 3.5–7.5 mm;
tube 2–5 mm, puberulent;
lobes triangular, 1–2.5 mm, equal or nearly so;
corolla usually lilac- to pink-purple, rarely white, 10–19(–22) mm;
wing auricles connate, linear, nearly equal or equal to claw.
loments, stipitate, pendulous to spreading, compressed, straight, narrowly ellipsoid, indehiscent (breaking transversely), constricted into 1–8, 1-seeded segments, glabrous or pubescent, rarely with processes.
1 per segment, brown, flattened, reniform-ovoid, glossy.
segments (1 or)2–5, 5.5–12 × 3.5–6 mm, margins narrowly winged, prominently reticulate, glabrous or pubescent.
= 7.
= 14 [16].
Hedysarum
Hedysarum alpinum
Species ca. 50 (4 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Hedysarum alpinum has been regarded in the past as belonging to two or more species, or as a single species with at least three infraspecific taxa. T. E. Northstrom (1974) treated the North American materials of H. alpinum as indistinguishable from the Eurasian counterparts, thereby discounting the recognition of North American specimens as a separate taxon, but recognized three almost completely confluent taxa at varietal level among the American representatives. Variety grandiflorum, known from harsh habitats from western Alaska to Northwest Territories and east to Labrador and Newfoundland, consists of dwarf plants having compact inflorescences and flowers longer than 16 mm, and var. philoscia, known from southern Canada south to Wyoming and South Dakota, stands on the character of pubescent loments. However, the beadlike, uniformly sized loment segments are at least somewhat distinctive. The characters regarded by previous workers as diagnostic fail singly, and in combination, they are not correlated with other morphological characteristics, and the geographical correlation is tenuous at best. It has been determined that dwarf plants with compact inflorescences occur with or nearby the larger flowered dwarf specimens, and larger flowered specimens with elongate inflorescences are known, sometimes on tall plants as well. Glabrous loments occur within the supposed distribution of the variety with pubescent loments, and plants with pubescent loments occur sporadically through much of the range of the species northward. Therefore, it seems probable that the features are at least in part ecologically induced, and the better course is to treat all of the specimens as belonging within the variability of a single broadly distributed species.
Hedysarum alpinum differs in degree only from the closely allied H. occidentale, with which it is largely allopatric. Specimens assigned to H. alpinum var. grandiflorum closely simulate high elevation phases of H. occidentale in habit and flower size. A flowering specimen of unknown locality would be difficult to identify. Occasional specimens within the range of H. occidentale share the small floral size of H. alpinum and are essentially indistinguishable without mature or nearly mature fruit.
Hedysarum auriculatum Eastwood, not Link, is an illegitimate name that pertains here.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Leaflet blade veins obscure; loment margins moderately or not winged; calyx lobes subequal to markedly unequal in size; wing auricles distinct, blunt, shorter than claw. | H. boreale |
1. Leaflet blade veins conspicuous; loment margins narrowly or conspicuously winged; calyx lobes equal or nearly so; wing auricles connate, linear, nearly equal or equal to claw. | → 2 |
2. Flowers 10–19(–22) mm (when greater than 16 mm, then from north of 50th parallel), corollas usually lilac- to pink-purple, rarely white; loment segments 5.5–12 × 3.5–6 mm, margins narrowly winged; leaflet blades lanceolate to oblong, elliptic, or lanceolate-elliptic. | H. alpinum |
2. Flowers (14–)16–25 mm, corollas usually yellow to pale yellow, or shades of pink or purple, rarely white; loment segments 7–14.5(–18) × 5.5–10.2(–11) mm, margins conspicuously winged; leaflet blades lanceolate to ovate, elliptic, oblong, or lanceolate-oblong. | → 3 |
3. Corollas yellow to pale yellow, 14–20 mm; loment segments 5.5–9 mm wide, glabrous. | H. sulphurescens |
3. Corollas usually lavender-pink or lilac- to pink-purple, rarely white, 16–25 mm; loment segments 5.6–10.2(–11) mm wide, pubescent or glabrous. | H. occidentale |
OR
WA
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
BC
Go Botany
MI Flora
