General: Perennial herb from a strong taproot and branching stem-base; tufted, to 25 cm tall.
Leaves: Basal, odd-pinnately compound, 3-25 cm long; leaflets 15 to 51, not whorled, lanceolate to lance-oblong, 5-22 mm long, short-hairy to glabrous, often sticky-glandular and warty; stipules 5-20 mm long, membranous, joined to the leaf-stalk for over 1/2 their length, the free part triangular to long-tailed, often glandular, the margins fringed with long hairs.
Flowers: Inflorescence a spike-like raceme, 2-7 cm long, of 6 to 30 pea-like flowers, the raceme-stalks ascending, 5-25 cm long; corollas yellowish or white or pink-purple, 12-15 mm long; calyces cylindric, about 2/3 the length of the corollas, long-soft-hairy with pale and dark hairs, the teeth linear, glandular-warty, about 1/2 as long as the tube.
Fruits: Pods, oblong-ellipsoid, 10-17 mm long including the slender beak, papery, dark-hairy and glandular-warty, partially 2-chambered.
If more than one illustration is
available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two
subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below.
Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.
Ecological Framework for Oxytropis borealis var. viscida
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
Dry sandy or gravelly slopes, ridgecrests, tundra, rock outcrops and talus slopes from the montane to alpine zones; locally frequent in extreme N BC and SE BC; N to AK, YT and NT, E to PQ and S to MN and CA.