Flora of North America species comparison

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Oxytropis borealis

boreal crazyweed, boreal locoweed, Nuttall's oxytrope, sticky crazyweed
Habit Plants cespitose, appearing acaulescent, 4–30 cm, glandular-viscid, especially stipules and calyces, herbage spreading-hairy.
Leaves

1–25 cm;

stipules membranous, light tan or grayish, 8–21 mm, often with debris adhering, usually prominently glandular, pilose or glabrous abaxially, margins ciliate;

leaflets 17–39+, blades oblong to lanceolate or elliptic, 1.5–22 × 1–6 mm, apex acute or obtuse, surfaces pilose or glabrous, often glandular.
Racemes

3–19+-flowered, dense or nearly capitate.
Peduncles

1–27 cm, axis 0.5–19 cm in fruit, hirsute, pilose, or villous-pilose, hairs spreading;

bract lanceolate to lanceolate-linear, shorter than or surpassing calyx, glandular or glabrous, margins ciliate.
Corollas

whitish, yellowish, ochroleucous, lilac, purple, bluish, or pink-purple, keel tip maculate or not, (9–)11–18(–21) mm.
Calyces

cylindric to shortly so, villous, hairs black and white;

tube 4–7 mm, lobes 1–5(–8) mm, usually glandular.
Legumes

mostly erect, sessile, ovoid to subcylindric, 8–21(–30) × 4–7 mm, bilocular or incompletely so, glandular, strigose to pilose.

Oxytropis borealis
Distribution
from USDA
North America; Asia
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 5 (5 in the flora).

Considerable confusion has existed over typification of Oxytropis borealis (S. L. Welsh 1990). The relationships of this species with several Eurasian taxa in sect. Gloeocephala Bunge are not well understood (R. C. Barneby 1952b).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Racemes subcapitate or nearly so, 5–10-flowered; wing petal blades dilated distally to 3.5–5 mm; leaflets (17 or)19–27(–37).
var. borealis
1. Racemes elongate, or subcapitate and elongating in fruit; wing petal blades not especially dilated distally, 2–3 mm, or if wider, then inflorescence not subcapitate; leaflets 17–39+.
→ 2
2. Peduncles 2.5–7 cm; calyx lobes 1–1.5 mm, not or obscurely tuberculate.
var. hudsonica
2. Peduncles (1–)4–27 cm; calyx lobes 1–4(–4.5) mm, prominently tuberculate.
→ 3
3. Corollas white or bluish, keel tips maculate; inflorescence axis often (2–)3–15 cm in fruit; se continental Alaska, n British Columbia, s Yukon.
var. sulphurea
3. Corollas white, ochroleucous, pink-purple, lilac, or yellowish, keel tips maculate or not; inflorescence axis often (1.5–)4–19 cm in fruit; Alaska to n, nc United States.
→ 4
4. Corollas pink-purple, lilac, whitish, or yellow; leaflet blades not thick or stiff; plants glandular.
var. viscida
4. Corollas usually white or ochroleucous, rarely fading bluish; leaflet blades thick and stiff; plants markedly viscid.
var. australis
Source FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Oxytropis
Sibling taxa
O. arctica, O. besseyi, O. campestris, O. deflexa, O. huddelsonii, O. kobukensis, O. kokrinensis, O. lagopus, O. lambertii, O. maydelliana, O. mertensiana, O. multiceps, O. nana, O. nigrescens, O. oreophila, O. parryi, O. podocarpa, O. riparia, O. scammaniana, O. sericea, O. splendens
Subordinate taxa
O. borealis var. australis, O. borealis var. borealis, O. borealis var. hudsonica, O. borealis var. sulphurea, O. borealis var. viscida
Name authority de Candolle in A. P. de Candolle and A. L. P. P. de Candolle: Prodr. 2: 275. (1825)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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