Oxytropis lambertii | |
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Scientific classification
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Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Fabales |
Family: | Fabaceae |
Subfamily: | Faboideae |
Genus: | Oxytropis |
Species: | O. lambertii
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Binomial name | |
Oxytropis lambertii | |
Varieties [2] | |
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Synonyms [2] | |
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Oxytropis lambertii commonly known as purple locoweed, [3] Colorado locoweed, [4] Lambert's crazy weed, [5] or Lambert’s Locoweed [6] is a species of flowering plant in the legume family.
It is native to grasslands in the Canadian Prairie of central Canada and in the mid-west and Great Plains of the United States from Texas to Manitoba and west to Arizona and Montana. [7] [3]
Oxytropis lambertii is a perennial herb producing a patch of basal leaves around the root crown, and several showy erect inflorescences. The leaf is compound with several silvery-green leaflets. The inflorescence produces several flowers, each borne in a tubular purple or pinkish calyx of sepals covered thinly in silver hairs. The pealike flower corolla is reddish or bluish purple with a lighter patch at the base of the banner. The fruit is a cylindrical legume pod.
The Oxytropis lambertii plant is one of the locoweeds most frequently implicated in livestock poisoning. [8] The toxin is called swainsonine. Research suggests that the plant itself may not be toxic, but becomes toxic when inhabited by endophytic fungi of the genus Embellisia, which produce swainsonine. [9]
Media related to
Oxytropis lambertii at Wikimedia Commons