Oxytropis campestris var. varians
Oxytropis campestris var. dispar
field locoweed
field locoweed
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.
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.
(4–)10–25+-flowered.
8–15-flowered, ± open to elongate.
3.5–35+ cm, axis 1.5–21 cm in fruit.
7–19(–26) cm, axis 3–8(–11) cm in fruit.
usually yellowish or whitish, rarely purplish in polychrome populations, sometimes fading purplish, keel tip sometimes maculate, usually 12–17(–19) mm.
purple, blue, pink, white, yellowish, or polychrome (in populations), 17–19(–21) mm.
pilosulous, hairs black and pale, tube 4–7.5 mm, lobes (1.2–)1.5–3 mm.
tube 6–6.5 mm, lobes 2–2.7 mm.
12–19(–24+) × 3.5–6 mm.
13–18 × 3.5–5 mm.
= 48, 96, 98.
= 32.
Oxytropis campestris var. varians
Oxytropis campestris var. dispar
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.)
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.)
BC
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
MN Wildflowers
