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Species Image Gallery (opens in a new window) |
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| THE LEGUME FAMILY | |||||||||
| The legumes are widely used as crop
foods around the world. Some well known examples are peas (Pisum),
peanuts (Arachis hypogaea), and beans (Phaseolus). Some
legumes are planted as alternate crops to restore nitrogen to the soil with
the nitrogen-fixing bacteria in their roots nodules. Other plants, like
the sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus), are used as ornamentals.
The legumes are herbs or trees. These plants have pinnately or palmately compound leaves. Rarely, the leaves are simple. Stipules, or a pair of leaf-like structures, are found at the base of the leaf. The flowers are in various types of inflorescences in the leaf axils and at the top of the plant, or the flowers are solitary. The flowers are usually irregularly shaped with five petals: the banner, two wings and two keels. The banner is the outermost petal and is often quite large. The wings are the next outermost petals and are found on the sides. The keel is made of two petals that often appear fused to create a boat shape. The legumes usually have 10 stamens, commonly in a diadelphous, or nine plus one arrangement. The fruit types in this family include the legume, such as the pea, or the loment, which is constricted between the seeds. In some legume species, modifications such as tendrils or thorns may be observed. |
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| BESSEY’S LOCOWEED | |||||||||
| LATIN NAME: Oxytropis besseyi var. besseyi | |||||||||
| WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? | |||||||||
| Bessey’s locoweed grows from a stout taproot. All the leaves are basal and the “stem” is actually the inflorescence stalk. The leaves have nine to 19 leaflets that are hairy on both sides. The inflorescence stalk is 14 to 19 cm long. The petals are pink to reddish-purple. The legume is covered by the sepals and is only 4 to 5 mm long. | |||||||||
| WHERE DOES IT GROW? | |||||||||
| Bessey’s locoweed grows on eroded, short-grassland slopes. | |||||||||
| WHERE IS IT FOUND IN SASKATCHEWAN? | |||||||||
| This species is found in southern Saskatchewan in the Mixed Grassland ecoregion. | |||||||||
| WHY IS IT RARE? | |||||||||
| Bessey’s locoweed is vulnerable in Saskatchewan because it is rare or uncommon. It is restricted to the southern part of the province and most local populations are small. Possible threats have been identified. | |||||||||
| HOW TO IDENTIFY BESSEY’S LOCOWEED | |||||||||
| * Are there leaflets opposite? * Are flowers purple? * Do the plants lack a definite stem? * Did you find it in southern Saskatchewan? | |||||||||
| If you answered yes to all of these questions, you may have found Bessey’s locoweed! | |||||||||
