Oxytropis is a genus of plants in the legume family. It includes over 600 species native to subarctic to temperate regions of North America and Eurasia.[1] It is one of three genera of plants known as locoweeds, and are notorious for being toxic to grazing animals. The other locoweed genus is the closely related Astragalus. Most oxtropis species are native to Eurasia and North America, but several species are native to the Arctic. These are hairy perennial plants which produce raceme inflorescences of pink, purple, white, or yellow flowers which are generally pea-like but have distinctive sharply beaked keels. The stems are leafless, the leaves being all basal.[2] The plant produces legume pods containing the seeds.

Oxytropis
Oxytropis jacquinii
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Clade: Inverted repeat-lacking clade
Tribe: Galegeae
Subtribe: Astragalinae
Genus: Oxytropis
DC. (1802)
Synonyms[1]
  • Aragallus Neck. ex Greene (1897)
  • Spiesia Neck. ex Kuntze (1891), nom. superfl.

Selected species

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References

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  1. ^ a b Oxytropis DC. Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  2. ^ Taylor, Ronald J. (1994) [1992]. Sagebrush Country: A Wildflower Sanctuary (rev. ed.). Missoula, MT: Mountain Press Pub. Co. p. 102. ISBN 0-87842-280-3. OCLC 25708726.
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