Pea Family
Deer Clover, Trifolium nanum, TORR.
Individual flowers, pink-lavender to purple, formed along a keel, like those of the cultivated clovers, about ½ inch long and rather slender, grow singly or in twos or threes on short pedicels rising directly from the root crown. The plant is a dense mat, often a foot or more across, covered with small 3-foliate leaves. Grows on rocky flats or slopes in alpine zone. Blooms June-July.
For many, acquainted only with the cultivated clovers of lawn and meadow, it is a pleasure to know that the high pastures grazed by deer and elk have clovers as well. At least three species are familiar to observing travelers along Trail Ridge, or up Mt. Evans, or along any road that crosses the enchanted land where trees stop and dwarfed plant life takes over. The deer clover pictured here likes rocky places. Its flowers are packed close together, but not clustered in heads as are those of its alpine neighbor, Trifolium dasyphyllum, which closely resembles the white clover of our lawns, though with touches on its petals of red-brown. In the high places, extending down through the sub-alpine zone there is also a bright red clover, Trifolium parryi, smaller but otherwise much like the cultivated red clover.
Pea Family
Lambert’s Loco, Oxytropis lambertii, PURSH
Individual flowers, about ½ inch wide, are formed of 5 dissimilar petals, usually magenta red, sometimes other shades from rose to purple. The banner bends back slightly and carries markings of lighter color near its base; the 2 lateral petals are plain and angle forward; the 2 lower petals form a narrow keel. Numerous flowers, attached at the calyx base along the upper third of a naked stem, form a showy spike 10 inches or more tall, several of which rise from one root crown. Leaves, pinnate, with numerous green leaflets, rise also from the root crown and are about half the height of the flower spikes. Grows in foothills and higher parts of plains zone. Blooms May-July.
The many members of the pea family going by the names of loco, vetch, milk vetch, etc., are usually considered crass weeds and are in disrepute because some of them are poisonous to stock. They often grow in soil containing traces of selenium, and are doubly harmful in that case. Where other browze is good, animals usually leave the toxic ones alone, except the occasional horse that becomes “an addict” and is “locoed.” In spite of these obnoxious qualities, there are few plants that give more bright and decorative touches to the plains.
Pea Family
Golden Banner, Thermopsis divaricarpa, A. NELS.
