Oxytropis campestris var. cusickii
Oxytropis campestris var. minor
Cusick's field crazyweed, Cusick's field locoweed, Cusick's locoweed, Cusick's oxytrope, field locoweed, yellow locoweed
field locoweed, oxytrope mineur
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.
(2–)3–10(–13) cm;
stipules glabrous or glabrate abaxially, margins eciliate;
leaflets 11–23(–27), opposite or subopposite, blades 2–10 mm.
3–15-flowered, subcapitate to somewhat elongate.
(3–)5–9-flowered, subcapitate.
prostrate to erect, 2–19 cm, glabrate, appressed-pilose, or villous-pilose, axis 0.5–3(–6) cm in fruit.
curved-ascending, 3–15(–18) cm, axis 0.3–1.5 cm in fruit.
whitish or yellowish throughout, keel tip usually not maculate, 14–18(–20) mm.
purple fading violet, 11–18 mm.
tube 6–9 mm, lobes 1–3.5(–4) mm.
tube 5–6.5 mm, lobes deltate, 0.5–1.5(–2) mm.
10–19 × 3.5–5(–6) mm.
10–22 × 3.5–5 mm.
= 48.
= 48.
Oxytropis campestris var. cusickii
Oxytropis campestris var. minor
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.)
Putative reports of var. minor from the Mackenzie Mountains are probably referable to the purple-flowered var. roaldii, from which var. minor differs in its flowers that average larger, and in the longer calyx tube. There are several specimens from Churchill, Manitoba, that have been variously assigned to vars. johannensis, minor, or varians. Field studies of these populations need to be undertaken to resolve this problem. The Pan-Arctic Flora (http://panarcticflora.org/) treats this taxon as a distinct species, Oxytropis terrae-novae (with O. campestris var. johannensis as a synonym).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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