Flora of North America species comparison

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Oxytropis deflexa var. sericea

Oxytropis deflexa
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

nodding locoweed, oxytrope à fruits retombants, pendant-pod locoweed, pendent-pod crazyweed, pendent-pod locoweed, short-stem oxytrope
Habit Plants caulescent or appearing acaulescent; herbage usually conspicuously long-villous. 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

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

(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

usually dirty white or variously suffused with purple.

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 var. sericea

Oxytropis deflexa
Phenology Flowering summer.
Habitat Spruce-fir, aspen, willow, alder, and meadow communities.
Elevation 0–3200 m. (0–10500 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; CA; CO; ID; MT; ND; NM; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB; NT; NU; ON; SK; YT
[BONAP county map]
from USDA
North America; Europe (Norway); n Asia
[WildflowerSearch map]
[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.)

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. FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Oxytropis > Oxytropis deflexa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Oxytropis
Sibling taxa
O. deflexa var. foliolosa, O. deflexa var. pulcherrima
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 O. deflexa subsp. retrorsa, O. deflexa var. culminis, O. retrorsa, O. retrorsa var. sericea Astragalus deflexus, Aragallus deflexus, Spiesia deflexa
Name authority Torrey & A. Gray: Fl. N. Amer. 1: 342. (1838) (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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