Photo of the lovely flowers of Oxytropis lambertii, commonly known as purple loco. Photo taken on the Comanche Creek hike in the Valle Vidal, NM. This genus is known for its devastating effects on livestock in the West.

Overview of Oxytropis lambertii. Photo taken on the Comanche Creek hike in the Valle Vidal, NM. Finley and Nieland (2013) have an excellent discussion of the negative effects of this genus on livestock in the West. These effects, which can cause a horse to act loco, give rise to one of its common names, purple locoweed.

Flowers of Oxytropis lambertii, which are very typical of pea-family flowers.

Leaves of Oxytropis lambertii. Note the many fine, silvery hairs on the leaves and lack of a leaf-like stipule at the base of the leaflets (Littlefield and Burns 2015).