Oxytropis lagopus
Oxytropis riparia
hare oxytrope, haresfoot locoweed
oxus locoweed, riparian 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.
subsessile, 5–15 cm;
stipules foliaceous, light tan or grayish proximally, green distally, well separated on stem, 5–10 mm, sparsely to densely appressed to spreading pilose abaxially, margins ciliate;
leaflets 11–17, alternate to subopposite, blades broadly lanceolate to oblanceolate, 10–38 × 3–12 mm, apex acute or subacute, surfaces sparsely to densely appressed to spreading-pilose abaxially, margins ciliate.
(3–)5–18-flowered, subcapitate or slightly elongate.
(18–)20–50-flowered, elongate, lax, subsecund.
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.
8–15 cm, surpassing leaves, axis 3–20 cm in fruit, sparsely strigose to moderately pilose;
bract linear-lanceolate, sparsely to densely pilose.
bright pink-purple or bluish purple, 15–19(–20) mm.
purplish, 6–7 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.
scarcely enlarging in fruit, campanulate, white-strigose;
tube 2–2.5 mm, lobes 1.2–1.5 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.
pendulous, stipitate, stipe 1–2.5 mm, sulcate adaxially, narrowly oblong, 15–20 × 4–5 mm, unilocular, papery, white- and/or black-strigulose.
= 16, 32.
Oxytropis lagopus
Oxytropis riparia
Varieties 3 (3 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Oxytropis riparia evidently was first discovered on ranches near Waterloo and Twin Bridges, in the valleys of the Jefferson and Ruby rivers in Madison County, Montana. The species is currently spreading and is to be expected at widely distributed locations throughout much of the American West. Plants at the Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge, Wyoming, are eaten by sage grouse; they seem to prefer the flower buds but eat all parts of the plant.
(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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