Oxytropis

Plant Characteristics

Cultivation

Scientific Names

Oxytropis >

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Read about Oxytropis in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Oxytropis (Greek, sharp keel). Leguminosae. Perennial herbs, half-shrubs and shrubs. The genus is like Astragalus, but is distinguished by a subulate beak at the tip of the keel. The American species are tufted with numerous short sts. from a hard and thick rootstock: Lvs. odd-pinnate with 7-16 pairs of lfts., which are woolly and white beneath: calyx tubular or tubular-campanulate: fls. ea-shaped (papilionaceous), with an erect standard, wings elongated, keel occasionally with thorn-like apex, longer or shorter than the wings, in racemes, spikes or heads and range from yellow, white through blue and purple to crimson: pods many-seeded.—About 234 species with the center of their distribution in Asia from Siberia to the Caucasus Mts. and Turkestan. A few species reach the mountains of Cent. Eu. None occurs in Afr. About 18 species found in the Rocky Mts. are referred to Aragallus, a generic name brought into prominence by E. L. Greene (Pittonia 3:208) and reviewed in Erythea 7:57-64 (1899) without definition. O. Lambertii is poisonous to stock. It is one of the most characteristic loco-weeds of the VV. (see Poisonous Plants). Locoed sheep are difficult, to herd, as they stray away from the flock; slight locomotor ataxia is manifested with twitching of the eyelids and grinding motion of the jaws. About a dozen kinds of Oxytropis are cult, in Eu., mostly as rock plants. They are hardy, easily prop, by seeds or division, and prefer a dry, sandy loam. These plants are of minor value horticulturally. O. hibrida, Bruegg. Probably a hybrid between O. campestriss and O. sericea or O. Hallesi. Perennial, from Switzerland. — O. ochroleuca. Bunge. Lvs. pinnate, 3-4 in. long, with oblong-lnnceo- Intelfts.: fls. small, drooping, in short racemes, yellowish white. N. Asia.— O. villosa. Blank (Aragallus villosus, Rydb.) Densely cespitose: foliage silvery white: fls. creamy white, in dense spikes; calyx silky, villous: pod white-silky tipped with hooked beak. Mont.— O. yunnantensis. Franch. Sts. many, woody: lfts. in 8-11 pairs, lanceolate: fls. in dense head of 7-12, deep blue. Yunnan. The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

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References

• Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963

External links

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