Flora of North America species comparison

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Oxytropis mertensiana

Mertens' oxytrope
Habit Plants cespitose, appearing acaulescent; caudex subterranean; branches elongate, to 11 cm, covered with persistent stipules.
Leaves

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.
Racemes

1- or 2-flowered.
Peduncles

3–8 cm, sparsely villous-pilose;

bract linear, 3–6 mm, black-hirsute.
Corollas

pink-purple, 12–16 mm.
Calyces

campanulate, densely black-pilose;

tube 4.8–6.2 mm, lobes 2.1–4.1 mm.
Legumes

borne aloft, erect, stipitate, stipe 1.5–2 mm, ovoid- or lanceoloid-oblong, 13–20 × 4–5 mm, subunilocular, pilose, hairs black.
2n

= 16.

Oxytropis mertensiana
Phenology Flowering summer.
Habitat Moist arctic tundra, alpine.
Elevation 0–1900 m. (0–6200 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; BC; YT; Asia (Russia)
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

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.)
Source FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Oxytropis
Sibling taxa
O. arctica, O. besseyi, O. borealis, O. campestris, O. deflexa, O. huddelsonii, O. kobukensis, O. kokrinensis, O. lagopus, O. lambertii, O. maydelliana, O. multiceps, O. nana, O. nigrescens, O. oreophila, O. parryi, O. podocarpa, O. riparia, O. scammaniana, O. sericea, O. splendens
Synonyms Aragallus mertensianus, Spiesia mertensiana
Name authority Turczaninow: Bull. Soc. Imp. Naturalistes Moscou 13: 68. (1840)
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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