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hare oxytrope, haresfoot locoweed

Gray's oxytrope, inflated locoweed, stalk-pod locoweed

Habit Plants cespitose, appearing acaulescent, herbage silky-pilose. Plants cespitose, appearing acaulescent; caudex subterranean or superficial; branches sometimes elongate, with persistent, pale stipules and leaf bases.
Leaves

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.

0.5–6 cm;

stipules membranous, stramineous, 7–13 mm, glabrous, margins ciliate;

leaflets (5–)9–13, opposite, blades linear-lanceolate to linear, (4–)5–8.5(–12) mm, usually involute and falcate, apex acute, surfaces greenish, sparsely hirsute.

Racemes

(3–)5–18-flowered, subcapitate or slightly elongate.

1–3-flowered, subcapitate.

Peduncles

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.

0.5–5 cm, pubescent;

bract ovate to lanceolate, pilose.

Corollas

bright pink-purple or bluish purple, 15–19(–20) mm.

often purple, sometimes white, 12–15(–19) mm.

Calyces

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, pilose;

tube 5–7 mm, lobes (1–)2–3 mm.

Legumes

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.

spreading, stipitate, stipe 1.5–3 mm, ovoid-ellipsoid or bladdery-inflated, 15–25(–38) × 10–17(–20) mm, subunilocular, thin-papery, strigose-pilosulous.

Oxytropis lagopus

Oxytropis podocarpa

Phenology Flowering summer.
Habitat Rocky alpine ridges, coastal shores.
Elevation 0–3900 m. (0–12800 ft.)
Distribution
from USDA
w North America
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CO; MT; WY; AB; BC; LB; NU; QC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 3 (3 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Plants with flowers alone are difficult to separate from Oxytropis nigrescens; the folded, typically falcate leaflets of O. podocarpa are diagnostic. Oxytropis podocarpa is a species of conservation concern in Montana.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
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
Source FNA vol. 11. FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Oxytropis Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Oxytropis
Sibling taxa
O. arctica, O. besseyi, O. borealis, O. campestris, O. deflexa, O. huddelsonii, O. kobukensis, O. kokrinensis, 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
O. arctica, O. besseyi, O. borealis, O. campestris, O. deflexa, 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. riparia, O. scammaniana, O. sericea, O. splendens
Subordinate taxa
O. lagopus var. atropurpurea, O. lagopus var. conjugans, O. lagopus var. lagopus
Synonyms Aragallus inflatus, A. podocarpus, O. arctica var. inflata, O. inflata, Spiesia inflata, S. podocarpa
Name authority Nuttall: J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 7: 17. (1834) A. Gray: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 6: 234. (1864)
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