(Scamman's oxytrope)
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Photo of Oxytropis scammaniana by Carl Roland
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Oxytropis scammaniana is an tufted alpine herb in the pea family (Fabaceae), with few purple flowers that grows in moist to wet areas on tundra including snowbeds. Plants grow from a branching caudex, covered in straw-colored stipules, up to 10 cm tall. Leaves are basal,
pinnate, with 9-13
lanceolate to
elliptic leaflets, margins
entire. Flowers are typically three, clustered at the top of an upright stem covered in long white hairs. Flowers are
bilaterally symmetric, the lowermost petal (the
keel) sharply pointed. The
calyx is black-hairy, petals are blue to purple. The fruit is a pod, 1-2 cm long, black-haired. This species can be separated from other cushion-forming, blue-flowered
Oxytropis in the flora by the upright flowering stems, and the straw-colored stipules that are hairless on the upper surface.
Oxytropis scammaniana is a
deciduous perennial, flowering in mid-summer and fruiting in the fall.
This species is
monoecious with bisexual flowers.
Oxytropis is typically pollinated by bees, but the pollination and dispersal biology of this particular species has not been studied. The fruits are pods. Plants have
root nodules containing nitrogen-fixing bacteria (
Rhizobium), allowing plants to colonize nutrient-poor soils.
Many species of Oxytropis produce the toxin swainsonine, which is harmful if consumed in large quantities.
Disclaimer for Known Uses.
Oxytropis scammaniana is an amphi-Beringian endemic arctic-alpine species, with disjunct stations in the Mackenzie Mts. and Northwest Territory. Within Alaska, this species ranges from the northern edge of the Brooks Range through the Yukon-Tanana Uplands and Alaska Range to the Wrangell Mts. The species is also known from a few sites in northern British Columbia and southern Yukon Territory, as well as Kamchatka. In Denali, O. scammaniana occurs occasionally across the northern Alaska Range, with a few stations in the Chulitna River drainage to the south.
Details are shown in the Plots & Charts found at right, depicting recent Denali data.
Oxytropis scammaniana is primarily an alpine plant, found from 700 to 1600 meters in Denali. It occurs equally on all aspects, but plants on northern aspects grow across a wider range of elevations. This species occurs across a range of slopes, from level to very steep, but has a slight preference for steeper slopes.
Details are shown in the Plots & Charts found at right. For more on how to interpret these figures, visit Understanding Data Presented.
Oxytropis scammaniana grows on rocky slopes and ridges and dry alpine tundra.
Wet to moist sites in the mountains.
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