Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Nodding Locoweed
Oxytropis deflexa
Pea family (Fabaceae)

This Oxytropis is nearly circumboreal in its distribution and in the Northern Hemisphere it is found scattered from Alaska to Newfoundland, through the Rockies, and west to California. Oxytropis deflexa grows from 4-16 inches tall, has hairy leaves on spreading arching red stems, flowers on leafless stalks, and seed pods are pendulant and grooved lengthwise. Leaves near the tip of the stem are shorter than those at the bottom and the flower cluster is fairly crowded but the stem of the seed pods elongates and the pods are not as crowded. There are two distinct varieties shown in the photos. Notice the very abruptly pointed tip to the portion of the flower. This shape is a diagnostic characteristic for the Oxytropis and helps separate this from Astragalus and Hedysarum. Peter Pallas named this plant Astragalus deflexus in 1779 from a specimen collected in Siberia. Augustin de Candolle renamed it Oxytropis deflexa in 1802. "Deflexa" is Latin for "," "bending outward" -- and that the plant certainly does.


© Mary Ellen (Mel) Harte, Bugwood.org

Description

Plants 4-16" tall but often very low and sprawling along the ground. 25-41, 1/5 to 1" long, , to , loosely hairy. many-flowered and elongating in . hairy. 1/3" long purple. , .

Field Marks

Usually sprawling numerous stems with blue-purple flowers splayed out in a circle around the main plant.

© Al Schneider

A raceme is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along its axis.

corolla -- The name for all the petals of a flower taken together.

ovate -- Oval, egg-shaped, with a tapering point.

reflexed -- bent sharply back or down.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

calyx -- the sepals of a flower, typically forming a whorl that encloses the petals and forms a protective layer around a flower in bud.

In a pea flower the two bottom petals are fused together forming a boat-like structure called the keel. The glumes of grasses may have a sharp projecting ridge like the keel of a boat.

leaflets -- Each little leaf-like thing in a compound leaf is a leaflet.

hanging or drooping.

genus -- A subdivision of a botanical Family in which all members have a significant number of similar characteristics.

lanceolate -- Lance-shaped. Long, wider in the middle.

oblong -- Having an elongated form with somewhat parallel sides. Rectangular.