Oxytropis nigrescens var. nigrescens
Oxytropis nigrescens var. uniflora

General:
Perennial herb from a taproot and branching stem-base covered with remains of old leaf-stalks and stipules; branches erect to prostrate-crawling, cushion-tufted to loosely matted, to 5 cm tall.

Leaves:
Basal, odd-pinnately compound, 1-7 cm long; leaflets 5 to 15, crowded, narrowly elliptic to egg-shaped, 2-10 mm long, densely to sparsely silky-hairy, sometimes snowy white-hairy; stipules 5-14 mm long, whitish-papery or with pale tips, often fringed with long hairs.

Flowers:
Inflorescence of 1 to 4 (usually 2 to 3) pea-like flowers atop a 1- to 5-cm long stalk, the flowers barely overtopping the leaves; corollas 12-20 mm long, pink-purple, rarely white; calyces bell-shaped, black-hairy, the tube 3-6 mm long, the teeth about 1/2 as long as the tube.

Fruits:
Pods, cylindric to narrowly ellipsoid, not flattened, almost unstalked, spreading, 2-3.5 cm long, short- to long-hairy with dark or mixed dark and pale hairs, 2-chambered, lying on the ground when mature. vol3_4

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

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.

Illustration Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia