Oxytropis campestris var. columbiana
Oxytropis campestris var. varians
field locoweed, slender crazyweed
field locoweed
(5–)8–17 cm;
stipules usually pilose, sometimes glabrescent abaxially, margins sometimes ciliate;
leaflets 11–17(or 19), opposite or subopposite, blades 9–30 mm.
3–40 cm;
stipules usually ± pilose abaxially, sometimes glabrous, margins ciliate, with clavate processes;
leaflets (9–)15–45, scattered, subopposite, or fasciculate, blades 2–24 mm.
10–28-flowered.
(4–)10–25+-flowered.
(8–)12–30 cm, axis 2–10 cm in fruit.
3.5–35+ cm, axis 1.5–21 cm in fruit.
white, banner often veined, keel tip maculate with purplish blue, 15–20(–22) mm.
usually yellowish or whitish, rarely purplish in polychrome populations, sometimes fading purplish, keel tip sometimes maculate, usually 12–17(–19) mm.
tube 5–6.5 mm, lobes (1.8–)2.5–4 mm.
pilosulous, hairs black and pale, tube 4–7.5 mm, lobes (1.2–)1.5–3 mm.
16–23 × 5–7 mm.
12–19(–24+) × 3.5–6 mm.
= 48.
= 48, 96, 98.
Oxytropis campestris var. columbiana
Oxytropis campestris var. varians
Variety columbiana is distinguished by the combination of small number of leaflets, whitish flowers with maculate keels, and its soft, silky pubescence; it is very similar to var. spicata, with which it is somewhat transitional. It differs in about the same manner as other varieties in this complex group of infraspecific taxa. Most of the Washington populations appear to have been eradicated by storage water in a reservoir. This variety is known currently mainly from islands in, and points around, Flathead Lake, Lake County, Montana. The tendency toward relatively large flowers and only 11–17 leaflets is similar to the so-called cervinus phase of var. spicata, which is common some distance north of Flathead Lake and extending into British Columbia.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Variety varians is a highly variable entity, with numerous plants with differing morphological phases often growing together on the same gravel bar or hillside in portions of Alaska and Yukon. Alpine phases of the variety, especially in southeastern Alaska, northern British Columbia, and southwestern Yukon, closely simulate high altitude materials of var. cusickii at its northern limits in Alberta and southern British Columbia. Specimens of var. varians appear to intergrade with materials of var. jordalii in montane sites near Juneau. Certainly, this is the northern counterpart of var. spicata, from which it differs in characters that are altogether tenuous. Some specimens from eastern Alaska show evidence of intermediacy between var. varians and Oxytropis splendens. These form the basis of Oxytropis tananensis Jurtzev (B. A. Jurtzev 1993b), which the Pan-Arctic Flora (http://panarcticflora.org/) recognizes as a distinct species.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
WA
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
BC
