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boreal locoweed, Nuttall's oxytrope, oxytrope visqueux, sticky boreal crazyweed, sticky boreal locoweed, sticky crazyweed, sticky oxytrope, sticky oxytropis, viscid locoweed

boreal crazyweed, boreal locoweed, Nuttall's oxytrope, sticky crazyweed

Habit Plants usually 8–26+ cm, glandular. Plants cespitose, appearing acaulescent, 4–30 cm, glandular-viscid, especially stipules and calyces, herbage spreading-hairy.
Leaves

2–21 cm;

leaflets (19–)25–39+.

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, subcapitate to elongate.

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

Peduncles

4–27 cm, often some surpassing leaves, axis often (1.5–)4–19 cm in fruit, pubescent.

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

pink-purple, lilac, whitish, or yellowish, keel tips maculate or not, 11–16 mm;

wing blades not especially dilated distally.

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

Calyces

7–10.5 mm, tube 4–7 mm, lobes (1–)1.5–3.5(–4.5) mm, prominently tuberculate.

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

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

Legumes

(8–)12–21(–30) × (4–)5–7 mm.

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

Oxytropis borealis var. viscida

Oxytropis borealis

Phenology Flowering spring–summer.
Habitat Gravel bars, roadsides, ridge crests, talus slopes, pinyon-juniper slopes, sage­brush, boreal forest, tundra communities.
Elevation 0–3900 m. (0–12800 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; CA; CO; ID; MN; MT; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; NT; NU; ON; QC; YT
[BONAP county map]
from USDA
North America; Asia
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Variety viscida is quite variable, with numerous subunits held together by tenuous characteristics that are difficult to define or place in a key. Variation is often great in populations from adjacent hillsides or on a single gravel bar, especially in the Arctic. Dwarf plants far removed from the range of var. hudsonica are similar to that entity; the inflorescences become capitate, and the calyx lobes are often relatively very short. Further study might reveal the need for additional segregation. The Pan-Arctic Flora (http://panarcticflora.org/) recognizes O. glutinosa and O. viscida as distinct species.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

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. FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Oxytropis > Oxytropis borealis Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Oxytropis
Sibling taxa
O. borealis var. australis, O. borealis var. borealis, O. borealis var. hudsonica, O. borealis var. sulphurea
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
Synonyms O. viscida, Aragallus viscidus, Astragalus viscidus, O. campestris var. viscida, O. gaspensis, O. glutinosa, O. ixodes, O. leucantha var. depressa, O. leucantha var. gaspensis, O. leucantha var. ixodes, O. leucantha var. magnifica, O. leucantha var. viscida, O. sheldonensis, O. viscidula, Spiesia viscida
Name authority (Nuttall) S. L. Welsh: Great Basin Naturalist 50: 358. (1991) de Candolle in A. P. de Candolle and A. L. P. P. de Candolle: Prodr. 2: 275. (1825)
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