Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Purple Locoweed
Oxytropis lambertii
Pea family (Fabaceae)

The very abruptly pointed tip to the of the flower is a diagnostic characteristic that helps separate the Oxytropis from Astragalus and Hedysarum. Oxytropis lambertii is a very showy member of the Pea Family. It is quite common throughout the central United States. In some areas the plant grows to twenty inches tall with numerous stems of flowers arising directly from the base of the plant. (The plant is, therefore, said to be "," without stem). Leaves are upright and cut into seven to thirteen narrow divisions. Oxytropis lambertii can be moderately to very hairy. Frederick Pursh described this plant in 1814 from a specimen collected by Bradbury in 1811 on bluffs above the Missouri River near the Nebraska/South Dakota border. Aylmer Lambert (1761-1842) was a British botanist.


© Max Licher, downloaded from SEINet

Description

Plants to 14" tall, stemless, mat forming leaves. 7-17 to nearly 2" long, hairy. many-flowered and elongating in . silvery hairy with a tube about 1/3 inch long. from 1/2 to 1" long, purple rose to pink blue. erect or spreading, to cylindric, gradually narrowed to a .

Field Marks

Numerous upright flower stems with dozens of pink purple flowers.

© Al Schneider

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

acaulescent -- a plant that has no apparent stem, or at least none visible above ground.

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

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

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

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.

beak -- A pointy thing on a seed or fruit.

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

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

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