LEGUMINOSAE (PULSE FAMILY) 241 
STEMLESS LOCO-WEED 
Oxyiropis Lambérti, Pursh. 
(Aragdllus spicdtus, Rydb.) 
Other English names: Colorado Loco-vetch, White Loco-weed, 
White Rattleweed. 
Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 
ae of bloom: April at southern limit of range, August at northern 
imit. 
Seed-time: June to October. 
Range: Minnesota to the Saskatchewan and British Columbia, 
southward to Texas and Mexico. 
Habitat: Prairies and foothills; wild pastures and meadows. 
This plant not only has a far wider range than the preceding 
species, but also climbs higher up the mountain sides, being found 
in Colorado and Montana at an altitude 
of eight thousand feet. Where they grow 
in company, however, the Woolly Loco- 
weed is considered the more harmful. 
The root is hard, thick, woody, and scaly, 
boring deeply into the earth; it is crowned 
with a thick tuft of nearly erect, odd- 
pinnate leaves, about four to eight inches 
long, with slender petioles and nine to nine- 
teen narrow, lance-shaped leaflets, about 
an inch in length and covered with fine, 
silky, whitish hairs; stipules hairy, mem- 
branous, lance-shaped, united to the base of 
the petiole. The peduncles also rise from 
the crown, eight to twelve inches in height, 
holding the dense flower-spikes well above 
the leaves; the flowers are usually white, 
and where the plant is abundant large 
areas appear as though covered with snow ; 
but in some localities, usually in the higher 
mountain regions, there is ‘great variation, 
some flowers being pink, others yellowish 
. Fig. 172. —Stemless 
or violet or purple; they are large, more Loco-weed (Ozytropis 
than an inch long, slender, with erect, ovate Lamberti). x %. 
R 
