Oxytropis DC
Fabaceae (Leguminosae), pea family.
Vegetative morphology. Plants perennial herbs; 1–35 cm high; cushion-like, or with leaves or spreading stems; glandular viscid, or not glandular viscid. Taproot present. Caudex present. Aerial stems erect, or decumbent; densely hairy (or hidden by stipules). Leaves distributed along the stems, or in a basal tuft (usually); alternate; compound; marcescent. Stipules present; scale-like; sheathing, or not sheathing (usually); brown, or white, or colorless. Petioles 5–60 mm long. Blades 10–120 mm long; 3–25 mm wide. Blades veins pinnate, or with inconspicuous veins. Blades adaxial surface dull, or shiny; glabrous (rarely), or hairy (usually). Leaflet arrangement pinnate. Leaflets (3–)5–33; 1.5–10 mm long; linear, or oblong, or elliptic, or ovate, or lanceolate.
Reproductive morphology. Flowering stems present. Flowering stems without leaves; glabrous, or hairy. Flowers solitary, or in inflorescences. Inflorescence racemose; 0.1–6 cm long. Flowers per inflorescence 1–13; small, less than 5 mm in diameter or length, or medium-sized, 5–15 mm in diameter or length, or large, more than 15 mm in diameter or length; zygomorphic. Floral scales glabrous, or hairy all over. Calyx sepals 5; fused. Calyx green, or yellow, or brown, or black; tubular; 5-lobed; hairy. Calyx teeth without or with few glandular verrucae, or with abundant glandular verrucae. Petals both free and fused; 5; yellow, or orange, or pink, or purple, or blue; with contrasting markings (with a pointed tip to the keel); unlobed, or shallowly lobed; 7–30 mm long. Corolla papilionaceous. Corolla keel with a pointed tip. Stamens 10. Nectaries present. Gynoecia superior. Carpels monomerous. Stigmas per style 1. Ovules 4–30. Fruit sessile, or stalked. Fruit with calyx persisting; dry; a legume; ellipsoid, or ovoid, or elongate-cylindrical, or obovate, or oblong; dehiscent. Fruit 8–30 mm long; 2–10 mm wide; yellowish, or black, or brown, or green at maturity; hairy (usually), or glabrous, or glabrescent. Legume unilocular. Styles may persist until dehiscence but are not modified. Seeds 3–25; 1–3 mm long; black, or brown; with surfaces smooth.
Chromosome information. 2n = 16, 96.
Distribution. Common, or uncommon, or rare. Arctic Islands: Baffin, Parry Islands, Banks, Victoria, King William, Southampton, Coats.
Ecology and habitat. Substrates: hummocks; calcareous; rocks, gravel, sand.
Notes. Porsild (1943) stated: ‘Of the numerous critical species
of plants in the flora of boreal and arctic North America, most of the members
of the genus Oxytropis, as shown by Fernald (1925), have been much
misunderstood by earlier writers. Hooker (1834) clearly did not understand the
genus, nor did John Macoun in his catalogue of Canadian Plants, nor in more
recent times J.M. Macoun and Theodore Holm (1921). In addition to taxonomic
difficulties the genus offers a number of geographical puzzles, as pointed out
by Simmons (1913) p. 111."
The "Revision of the North American species of
Oxytropis" produced by Barneby (1952), began as a less ambitious project
restricted to the western United States. However, as alluded by Porsild above,
and in Barneby's own words "... a state of affairs confirmed by chaos on the
shelves of many herbaria. The species listed seemed far to outnumber those
existing in nature, while their names ... had acquired an abundance of
disordered synonyms", the opus grew to include the whole of North America. In an
updated summary, and as one of a series of papers contributing treatments for
Flora North America (volume containing Fabaceae in progress), Welsh (1991)
listed all the names basionyms types and synonyms known to apply to the genus
Oxytropis in North America.
Cite this publication as: ‘S.G. Aiken, M.J. Dallwitz, L.L. Consaul, C.L. McJannet, L.J. Gillespie, R.L. Boles, G.W. Argus, J.M. Gillett, P.J. Scott, R. Elven, M.C. LeBlanc, A.K. Brysting and H. Solstad. 1999 onwards. Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval. Version: 29th April 2003. http://www.mun.ca/biology/delta/arcticf/’. Dallwitz (1980) and Dallwitz, Paine and Zurcher (1993, 1995, 2000) should also be cited (see References).