Flora of North America species comparison

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Oxytropis deflexa var. pulcherrima

Oxytropis deflexa var. sericea
Photo is of parent taxon

nodding locoweed
Photo is of parent taxon

blue nodding locoweed, blue pendent-pod oxytrope, nodding locoweed, pendent-pod crazyweed, pendent-pod locoweed, short-stem oxytrope, silky locoweed, silky nodding locoweed, silky oxytrope
Habit Plants caulescent, subacaulescent, or appearing acaulescent; herbage copiously and loosely villous-pilose or sericeous. Plants caulescent or appearing acaulescent; herbage usually conspicuously long-villous.
Racemes

densely 10–20-flowered, hemispheric or subcapitate to shortly subcylindric, 20–27 mm wide when pressed, usually 1.5–6 cm in fruit, slightly elongate in fruit.

usually 10–25-flowered, subcylindric, usually much elongate in fruit.
Corollas

bright pink-purple or purple.

usually dirty white or variously suffused with purple.

Oxytropis deflexa var. pulcherrima

Oxytropis deflexa var. sericea
Phenology Flowering summer. Flowering summer.
Habitat Alpine tundra, spruce-fir, and aspen communities, gravel, meadows. Spruce-fir, aspen, willow, alder, and meadow communities.
Elevation 500–4600 m. (1600–15100 ft.) 0–3200 m. (0–10500 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CO; UT
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AK; CA; CO; ID; MT; ND; NM; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB; NT; NU; ON; SK; YT
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Variety sericea is the common phase of Oxytropis deflexa south of the Arctic. The variety is highly variable, especially in size and aspect of flowers. Flowers of some of the variants appear not to open, as if they were cleistogamous. The Pan-Arctic Flora (http://panarcticflora.org/) treats var. sericea as O. deflexa subsp. retrorsa.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 11. FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Oxytropis > Oxytropis deflexa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Oxytropis > Oxytropis deflexa
Sibling taxa
O. deflexa var. foliolosa, O. deflexa var. sericea
O. deflexa var. foliolosa, O. deflexa var. pulcherrima
Synonyms Astragalus retroflexus O. deflexa subsp. retrorsa, O. deflexa var. culminis, O. retrorsa, O. retrorsa var. sericea
Name authority S. L. Welsh & A. Huber: Great Basin Naturalist 55: 277. (1995) Torrey & A. Gray: Fl. N. Amer. 1: 342. (1838)
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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