Oxytropis campestris var. roaldii |
Oxytropis campestris var. varians |
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roald's locoweed |
field locoweed |
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Habit | Plants 4–16 cm, herbage sparsely pilose, hairs subappressed. | Plants 5–55 cm, herbage silky-pilose to hirsute or glabrescent. |
Leaves | 2–11 cm; stipules glabrous or strigose abaxially, margins ± ciliate, apex often bristly; leaflets 11–21, scattered or opposite, blades 4–8.5 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. |
Racemes | usually 8–12(–14)-flowered, subcapitate or somewhat elongate. |
(4–)10–25+-flowered. |
Peduncles | 3–12 cm, axis 1.5–4.5 cm in fruit. |
3.5–35+ cm, axis 1.5–21 cm in fruit. |
Corollas | lavender or pink-purple, sometimes polychrome, 13–16(–17) mm. |
usually yellowish or whitish, rarely purplish in polychrome populations, sometimes fading purplish, keel tip sometimes maculate, usually 12–17(–19) mm. |
Calyces | tube (3.7–)4.5–5 mm, lobes (1–)1.2–2(–2.7) mm. |
pilosulous, hairs black and pale, tube 4–7.5 mm, lobes (1.2–)1.5–3 mm. |
Legumes | 9–15 × 4–6 mm. |
12–19(–24+) × 3.5–6 mm. |
2n | = 64. |
= 48, 96, 98. |
Oxytropis campestris var. roaldii |
Oxytropis campestris var. varians |
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Phenology | Flowering summer. | Flowering spring–summer. |
Habitat | Alpine and arctic tundra. | Gravel bars, terraces, rock outcrops, roadsides, woods, heathlands, alpine meadows. |
Elevation | 0–500 m. (0–1600 ft.) | 10–2000 m. (0–6600 ft.) |
Distribution |
AK; NT; YT |
AK; BC; MB; NT; YT |
Discussion | Variety roaldii has flowers that are usually larger, calyx lobes that are usually longer, and other subtle differences aside from flower color that allow segregation from var. jordalii. However, there are intermediate specimens, and in some places, especially on gravel bars, flower color grades within populations. A similar pattern is to be noted between the partially sympatric vars. davisii and spicata in the mountains of Alberta, and between other varieties situated elsewhere. The Pan-Arctic Flora (http://panarcticflora.org/) recognizes Oxytropis roaldii as a distinct species. (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.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | O. roaldii, O. campestris subsp. roaldii | Aragallus varians, O. alaskana, O. campestris subsp. varians, O. hyperborea, O. tananensis, O. varians |
Name authority | (Ostenfeld) S. L. Welsh: Great Basin Naturalist 51: 386. (1991) | (Rydberg) Barneby: Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., ser. 4, 27: 253. (1952) |
Web links |