Panarctic Flora

630642 Oxytropis viscida Nutt. ex Torr. & A. Gray

• Torr. & A. Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1: 341 (1838). Syntypes (NY, PH): U.S.A.: Wyoming, "Rocky Mountains, near the sources of Oregon" Fremont Co., Beaver Hill west of the Sweetwater Crossing on the Oregon trail, 1834, leg. Nuttall. - Oxytropis borealis var. viscida (Nutt. ex Torr. & A. Gray) S.L. Welsh, Great Basin Naturalist 50: 358 (1991).
• Aragallus viscidulus Rydb., Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 1: 253 (1900). Described from North America: Montana, Yellowstone Park, Utah, and "British America". - Oxytropis viscidula (Rydb.) Tidestr., Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 25: 332 (1925).

2n= (1) 16 (2x). - Alaska. - Dawe and Murray (1981c, two counts).
(2) 32 (4x). - Alberta. - Ledingham (1958).

Geography: Cordilleran: ALA.

Notes: Yurtsev: Oxytropis viscida should not be subordinated to O. borealis s. lat. as subspecies.

Murray and Elven: We concur and also agree that the variation in Gloeocephala in northwestern North America needs to be revised anew. A superficial survey of the plants suggests that three taxa are present, treated by Welsh (2001) as races of O. borealis: var. borealis, var. viscida, and var. sulphurea. Oxytropis borealis var. sulphurea (A.E. Porsild) S.L. Welsh, Great Basin Natural. 50: 358 (1990 1991) [O. viscidula subsp. sulphurea A.E. Porsild, Natl. Mus. Canad. Bull. 121: 247 (1951), incl. O. verruculosa A.E. Porsild, Natl. Mus. Canad. Bull. 121: 246 (1951)], is a non-arctic taxon restricted to eastern Alaska, the Yukon Territory, and southwards into northern British Columbia along the "corridor" in the Rocky Mountains between the Pleistocene Cordilleran and Laurentide ice sheets. It is a plant of prairie bluffs at low elevations, at least in Alaska and the Yukon Territory. It is characterized by leaflets often semi-verticillate, calyx and legume with white hairs or rarely some black ones, bracts often extending beyond the flowers, and inflorescence becoming interrupted in the fruit stage. Oxytropis borealis var. viscida incl. [O. viscidula and a major part of what has been assigned to O. glutinosa but not the type] is widespread in the Cordilleran region from the southern Rockies and California north to the eastern Alaska Range and the eastern Brooks Range but not recorded from western Alaska or north of the Brooks Range. It is characterized by leaflets not or very rarely semi-verticillate, calyx and mostly also legume with both white and black hairs and appearing gray, bracts mostly not extending beyond the flowers and often not longer than the calyx, and inflorescence mostly not becoming interrupted in fruit stage. Both var. viscida and var. sulphurea are characterized vs. var. borealis by corolla wings 2-3 mm wide and not strongly dilated distally, inflorescence elongate and elongating appreciably in fruit stage, corolla purplish blue or cream-white, calyx with a mixture of white and black hairs, and leaflets mostly 25 or more. Our not very thorough survey did not suggest intermediates between the varieties of Welsh and we rather see them as three species. See also O. borealis below.