Flora of North America species comparison

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Oxytropis deflexa

nodding locoweed, oxytrope à fruits retombants, pendant-pod locoweed, pendent-pod crazyweed, pendent-pod locoweed, short-stem oxytrope
Habit Plants cespitose, caulescent or subacaulescent, sometimes appearing acaulescent, (5–)7–48 cm, herbage pilose, villous-pilose, long-villous, or sericeous, hairs spreading or retrorse; stems flexuous, with (0 or)1–7 internodes.
Leaves

2–22 cm;

stipules subherbaceous, light tan, grayish, or purplish, well separated on stem, 7–20 mm, ± pilose abaxially, margins ± ciliate;

leaflets (9–)15–41, opposite or subopposite, blades ovate, lanceolate, or lanceolate-oblong, 3–25 × 1–8(–11) mm, apex acute to obtuse, surfaces pilose or glabrous adaxially.
Racemes

(2–)4–25[–30+]-flowered, extending beyond leaves.
Peduncles

3.5–32(–36) cm, axis 3.5–10 cm in fruit, villous-pilose;

bract linear to lanceolate-oblong, pilose.
Corollas

bright pink-purple, purple, or whitish and sometimes suffused with purple, [lilac or blue-purple], 5–10.5(–12) mm.
Calyces

campanulate, 3–8 mm, villous-pilose, hairs stiff, black;

tube 2–3.5(–4.5) mm, lobes 1.5–5 mm.
Legumes

spreading-declined, subsessile to short-stipitate, oblong to ellipsoid, 8–18 × 3–4.5 mm, subunilocular, thinly papery, pilosulous, hairs white and/or black.
2n

= 16.

Oxytropis deflexa
Distribution
from USDA
North America; Europe (Norway); n Asia
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[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 5 (3 in the flora).

Two European and Asian varieties are known: var. lapponica (Wahlenberg) B. Boivin is known from northern Europe; var. deflexa is found in Siberia, and can be distinguished from var. pulcherrima by elongate racemes, smaller flowers, and slender fruits (S. L. Welsh 1995b).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Corollas usually dirty white or variously suffused with purple; racemes usually 10–25-flowered, subcylindric, usually much elongate in fruit; herb­age usually conspicuously long-villous; usually of open sites.
var. sericea
1. Corollas bright pink-purple or purple; racemes (2–)4–20-flowered, hemispheric or subcapitate to shortly subcylindric, slightly elongate in fruit; herb­age pilose, villous-pilose, or sericeous; often of woods, thickets, or tundra.
→ 2
2. Racemes usually 10–20-flowered; herbage copi­ously and loosely villous-pilose or sericeous.
var. pulcherrima
2. Racemes usually (2–)4–10-flowered; herbage sparsely pilose, not sericeous.
var. foliolosa
Source FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Oxytropis
Sibling taxa
O. arctica, O. besseyi, O. borealis, O. campestris, O. huddelsonii, O. kobukensis, O. kokrinensis, O. lagopus, O. lambertii, O. maydelliana, O. mertensiana, O. multiceps, O. nana, O. nigrescens, O. oreophila, O. parryi, O. podocarpa, O. riparia, O. scammaniana, O. sericea, O. splendens
Subordinate taxa
O. deflexa var. foliolosa, O. deflexa var. pulcherrima, O. deflexa var. sericea
Synonyms Astragalus deflexus, Aragallus deflexus, Spiesia deflexa
Name authority (Pallas) de Candolle: Astragalogia (qto.), 28, 96; (fol.), 22, 77. (1802)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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