Oxytropis campestris var. dispar
field locoweed
strongly dimorphic, 5–21 cm;
stipules usually concealed by vesture;
leaflets 19–25, scattered or subopposite, blades primary ones crowded, ovate, shorter, distally linear-lanceolate or narrowly oblong, 4–20 mm.
8–15-flowered, ± open to elongate.
7–19(–26) cm, axis 3–8(–11) cm in fruit.
purple, blue, pink, white, yellowish, or polychrome (in populations), 17–19(–21) mm.
tube 6–6.5 mm, lobes 2–2.7 mm.
13–18 × 3.5–5 mm.
= 32.
Oxytropis campestris var. dispar
Variety dispar is closely allied to var. spicata, from which it differs in the flowers being polychrome within populations and in the somewhat firmer texture of the pods. It may well be that var. dispar is the somewhat stabilized product of previous hybridization involving the disjunct pale-flowered var. spicata and the purple-flowered Oxytropis lambertii, common in the same region. However, the presence of var. johannensis, not far distant to the northeast, might account for the occurrence of darker colored flowers in this region.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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