Oxytropis parryi

Parry's oxytrope

Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.3

Parry's oxytrope is a California native perennial found in the central Sierra Nevada and eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains, including White, Inyo, and Sweetwater Mountains, near timberline at elevations of 3,100 to 3,800 meters. Flowering from June to July, this plant produces distinctive purple flowers in small clusters of 1 to 3 blossoms, each approximately 7 to 10 millimeters long. Growing as a dense, gray cushion-like clump with white and black silky hairs, it forms a compact mound 15 to 25 centimeters tall. Its basal leaves have 11 to 15 leaflets, each 2 to 12 millimeters long, folded and ranging from ovate to oblong in shape. The fruit is an ascending, leathery pod 15 to 20 millimeters long, slightly two-chambered and lanceolate to narrowly ovate.

Habitat: Near timberline, above

Bloom period: Jun-Jul

Elevation: 3100-3800 m

Bioregions: c&amps SNH, SNE (White, Inyo, Sweetwater mtns)

California counties: Mono, Inyo

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.