Oxytropis monticola (Late Yellow Locoweed) - photos and description
Flowers have a keel with a pointed tip.
General: Plants tufted, usually with multiple scapes arising from the caudex. Plant is silky hairy, giving the leaves a greyish green appearance.
Flowers: Inflorescence in a long, oblong spike measure to 18.5 cm long. Flowers pale yellow, we measured a flower at 15 mm long. Scapes leafless.
Leaves: Leaves all basal, pinnate, we counted up to 33 leaflets. Leaflets lanceolate to oblanceolate, we measured a leaflet at 25 mm long and 8 mm wide.
Height: Height listed in Budd's Flora to 40 cm. We measured plants to 66 cm tall.
Habitat: Grassland, moist woodland and open wooded areas from the prairies to the boreal forest.
Abundance: Common.
Origin: Native.
Synonym: Listed in some of the field guides we use
as Oxytropis campestris.
This can be confusing: in field guides where Oxytropis monticola (the
plant described on the webpage you're viewing - Late Yellow Locoweed)
is listed as Oxytrois campestris, what is now listed as
Oxytropis campestris (Early Yellow Locoweed) is listed as
Oxytropis sericea.
Similar species: Could be mistaken for another Locoweed - Oxytropis campestris, both have pale yellow flowers. However, the flower spike of O. campestris is only from 4 to 5 cm in length, while for O. monticola the flower spike is 5 to 20 cm in length (Taxonomic Reminder for Recognizing Saskatchewan Plants).
When and where photographed: We took these photos July 3rd, roadside in the boreal forest, 450 km north east of our home in Regina, SK.