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Cusick's field crazyweed, Cusick's field locoweed, Cusick's locoweed, Cusick's oxytrope, field locoweed, yellow locoweed

Habit Plants 4–15(–21) cm, herbage sparsely to densely pilose.
Leaves

1.2–12 cm;

stipules glabrous or sparsely pilose proximally, margins ciliate or eciliate;

leaflets 7–15(–17), opposite, subopposite, or scattered, blades 4–23 mm.

Racemes

3–15-flowered, subcapitate to somewhat elongate.

Peduncles

prostrate to erect, 2–19 cm, glabrate, appressed-pilose, or villous-pilose, axis 0.5–3(–6) cm in fruit.

Corollas

whitish or yellowish throughout, keel tip usually not maculate, 14–18(–20) mm.

Calyces

tube 6–9 mm, lobes 1–3.5(–4) mm.

Legumes

10–19 × 3.5–5(–6) mm.

2n

= 48.

Oxytropis campestris var. cusickii

Phenology Flowering summer.
Habitat Talus slopes, ridge crests, alpine or subalpine meadows, usually above timberline.
Elevation 2100–3400 m. (6900–11200 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CO; ID; MT; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Variety cusickii is highly variable in flower size, especially where the large-flowered Oxytropis sericea var. speciosa occurs nearby. The existence of apparently transitional populations demonstrates the absence of consistent diagnostic features to separate what are, otherwise, rather distinctive taxa. The flowers seldom fade to a relatively bright yellowish on drying, as in O. sericea var. speciosa. It is not always possible to distinguish specimens of var. cusickii from var. spicata. Those materials traditionally passing as var. cusickii often occur in near proximity to var. spicata, which occurs at lower elevations on the same mountain ranges.

Oxytropis alpicola (Rydberg) M. E. Jones is an illegitimate name that pertains here.

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

Source FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Oxytropis > Oxytropis campestris
Sibling taxa
O. campestris var. chartacea, O. campestris var. columbiana, O. campestris var. davisii, O. campestris var. dispar, O. campestris var. johannensis, O. campestris var. jordalii, O. campestris var. minor, O. campestris var. roaldii, O. campestris var. spicata, O. campestris var. varians, O. campestris var. wanapum
Synonyms O. cusickii, Aragallus alpicola, Astragalus alpicola, O. campestris var. rydbergii, O. paysoniana, O. rydbergii
Name authority (Greenman) Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 6: 111. (1951)
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