Oxytropis lagopus
Oxytropis mertensiana
hare oxytrope, haresfoot locoweed
Mertens' oxytrope
1–10 cm;
stipules membranous, soon ruptured, light becoming dark in age, silky-pilose, margins ciliate;
leaflets 5–17, scattered or congested, blades ovate-oblong to narrowly elliptic, 3–15 × 2–6 mm, apex acute or obtuse, surfaces pilose or sericeous.
1–7 cm;
stipules membranous, light tan or grayish, glabrous abaxially;
leaflets 1 or 3(or 5), mostly continuous with rachis, decurrent or obscurely articulated with rachis, blades elliptic to oblong, 7–25 × 2–5 mm, apex acute, surfaces glabrous abaxially, sparsely pubescent adaxially.
(3–)5–18-flowered, subcapitate or slightly elongate.
1- or 2-flowered.
1–13 cm, axis 0.5–3(–4) cm in fruit, appressed-pilose to villous-hirsute;
bract ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, margins involute, shaggy-pilose.
3–8 cm, sparsely villous-pilose;
bract linear, 3–6 mm, black-hirsute.
bright pink-purple or bluish purple, 15–19(–20) mm.
pink-purple, 12–16 mm.
deeply campanulate, villous to shaggy-villous, hairs mixed blackish and white, appearing gray, 2 mm;
tube 5.5–7 mm, slightly swollen to strongly inflated, variably accrescent, ruptured by fruit or not, lobes 2–4.5 mm.
campanulate, densely black-pilose;
tube 4.8–6.2 mm, lobes 2.1–4.1 mm.
enclosed in or exserted from calyx, erect, sessile or short-stipitate, ovoid to narrowly oblong, turgid to inflated, 6–15(–20) × 4–6.5 mm, bilocular, papery to nearly membranous, white- or black-villous.
borne aloft, erect, stipitate, stipe 1.5–2 mm, ovoid- or lanceoloid-oblong, 13–20 × 4–5 mm, subunilocular, pilose, hairs black.
= 16.
Oxytropis lagopus
Oxytropis mertensiana
Varieties 3 (3 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Oxytropis mertensiana is easily distinguished by its unifoliolate primary and trifoliolate secondary leaves, in conjunction with the few-flowered, densely black-pilose inflorescences. The British Columbia record may be an introduction.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Leaflets 7 or 9(–13), congested on rachis, rachis about equaling longest leaflet; sw Alberta, w Montana. | var. conjugans |
1. Leaflets 11–17, well-distributed on rachis, rachis longer than longest leaflet; Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming. | → 2 |
2. Calyces becoming swollen, accrescent in fruit; legumes falling enclosed within calyx prior to dehiscence; Idaho, Montana, n Wyoming. | var. lagopus |
2. Calyces slightly swollen or not accrescent in fruit; legumes usually persisting on plant within calyx until after dehiscence; s Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming. | var. atropurpurea |
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