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Addiction is commonly cited as a clinical sign of locoweed (Astragalus spp. and Oxytropis spp.) poisoning. In a previous study, ewes progressively poisoned on locoweed ("locoed") in cafeteria trials did not become addicted to locoweed. Following a year of recovery, these ewes were allowed to graze locoweed-infested rangeland to determine if there was any residual preference for, or addiction to, locoweed. Neither the locoed nor control ewes consumed appreciable amounts of locoweed on rangeland where associated forage was succulent and actively growing, and where grazing pressure was sufficiently low to allow selective grazing. There was no residual preference for locoweed in previously locoed ewes. However, locoed ewes often exhibited sudden involuntary seizures when attempting to take a bite of forage. The head would tremble and tuck up under the brisket in a bobbing motion, and eye lids fluttered for a few seconds before the animal was able to proceed in feeding. Biting rate of locoed ewes was about a third less than that of the control ewes (P

Summary On the base of collections made during expeditions in 1982 (Jager) and 1964 (Danert, Davazamc, Hanelt) as well as of data by Hilbig & Schamsran (1976, 1977, 1980, 1981) 141 species have been enumerated which are not mentioned by Grubov (1982) for the Dsungarian Gobi in his new flora of Mongolia. For some very rare species new localities have been added. New records for the flora of the Mongolian People’s Republic are represented by the following taxa: Sagittaria natans, Bromus scoparius, Bolboschoenus maritimus, Eleocharis equisetiformis, Ranunculus lingua, Oxytropis puberula, Malva pusilla, Trachomitum lancifolium, Galystegia sepium, Scrophularia hilbigii, Veronica catenata, and Orobanche amoena. A checklist of all hitherto known species of higher plants for the Mongolian part of Dsungaria has been compiled. Thus the flora of this region now comprises 466 species, a rather high number for this comparatively small desert area. Distribution maps of western species demonstrate the position of Dsungaria at the border of Western Eurasia.

The temperate forage legume sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia) is readly nodulated by rhizobia isolated from arctic legumes (Astragalus and Oxytropis species). We have investigated the effects of low temperatures on nitrogenase activity in sainfoin nodulated by arctic and temperate (homologous) rhizobia. At low temperatures, nitrogenase activity of arctic rhizobia measured either with detached nodules or with whole plants, was higher than that of temperate rhizobia. At 5°C and 10°C, nitrogenase activity values of arctic rhizobia represented 12% and 33% of those measured at 20°C, while lower values of 3.7% and 22.4% were observed with temperate rhizobia. This cold adaptation was also reflected on bacterial growth where, at 5°C and 10°C, arctic rhizobia showed a shorter doubling time and synthesized more protein than temperate rhizobia.

An annotated list is given of 48 species of aphids collected 1974–1977 at Churchill, Manitoba. Four new species are described: Acyrthosiphon churchillense new species from Oxytropis hudsonica (Greene) Fern, Aphis madderae new species from Taraxacum lacerum Greene, Capitophorus hudsonicus new species (collected by sweeping), and Macrosiphum subarcticum new species from Epilobium angustifolium L. It is suggested that Macrosiphum valerianae (Clarke) be declared a nomen dubium.

Forty-eight strains of rhizobia were isolated from the root nodules ofAstragalus alpinus (21),Oxytropis maydelliana (19) andOxytropis arctobia (8), three species of arctic legumes found in the Melville Peninsula, Northwest Territories, Canada. On the basis of 74 characteristics (cultural, physiological, biochemical and host nodulation range) the 48 arctic rhizobia could be divided into 11 distinct groups by numerical analysis techniques. All 48 arctic rhizobia were able to nodulate the three arctic legume species and also sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia), however, milkvetch (Astragalus cicer) was only nodulated by 33 strains. In general, the arctic rhizobia showed properties found in both Rhizobium and Bradyrhizobium. The adaptation of the arctic strains to low temperature is indicated by their ability to grow in liquid culture at 5°C.

Tychius mixtus Hatch is newly synonymized with T. tectus LeConte; T. lamellosus Casey, T. squamosus Hatch and T. intermixtus Hatch are synonymized with T. semisquamoslls LeConte, and T. hirsutus Clark is synonymized with T. soltaui Casey. New locality and host records are given for T. tectus LeConte, T. semisquamosus LeConte, T. sordidus LeConte, T. soltaui Casey, and T. liljebladi Blatchley. Comparison of North American Tyehius with species from Eurasia and Africa indicates that the North American species belong to at least 2 major groups, each of which has a greater number of species in the Old World. Phylogenetic and host plant relationships and distribution patterns indicate that Tyehius arose in the Old World; several independent dispersals from Eurasia have formed the North American fauna. Tyehius sordidus and T. caesius Clark are probably remnants of an old Holarctic fauna associated with the Arcto-Tertiary flora. Tyehius lineellus is probably related to the latter two species but dispersed via Beringia. T. liljebladi Blatchley and T. tectus LeConte are more closely allied to members of the semisquamosus Group; all of these have close relatives in Eurasia. The former 2 have as hosts species of Oxytropis and species of Astragalus which belong to Eurasian groups. They probably arrived in North America after the semisquamoslls Group was already established. T. tectus also has Astragalus hosts which belong to native North American groups. It appears to be extending its geographic and host range at the expense of some semisquamosus Group members. Members of the latter group are known only from species of Astragalus in American groups of from the genus Lotus.

The present paper deals with the following three mountainOxytropis species:Oxytropis urumoviiJav. inUrumov, an endemic species of the Pirin (Bulgaria);O. dinarica(Murb.) Wettst. distributed predominantly in Yugoslavia, andO. campestris which is common in the East Alps, but very rare in the Balkans. Three subspecies ofO. dinarica were distinguished: subsp.dinarica, subsp.weberiChrtek etChrtkova, and subsp.velebiticaChrtek etChrtkova. In addition, a new combinationO. halleriBunge exKoch subsp.korabensis (Kummerle etJav.)Chrtek etChrtkova is given.

Many legume species provide excellent quality forage, although the extent to which non-cultivated species are able to fix N symbiotically is generally unknown. In this report 91 accessions of legumes from the genera Astragalus, Onobrychis, Lupinus, Hedysarum, and Oxytropis were tested for their ability to nodulate and fix N effectively. All accessions were obtained from the USDA Western Regional Plant Introduction Station at Pullman, Wash. Accessions were first screened by evaluating them in small plastic growth tubes. Eighty-two accessions were nodulated by at least one Rhizobium strain and 53% of the accessions tested were judged to be effectively nodulated based on yield. All accessions that were identified as effective were then gown in Leonard jars and inoculated with single strains of rhizobia. Dry matter yield and nitrogen content were determined for all entries. Twenty-seven accessions whicb were tested in Leonard jars were considered to have potential as effective Nrfixing forage legumes based on comparison with N-fertilized controls. The highest yielding entries were several A. cicer L. (cicer milkvetch) accessions and a single accession of H. coronarium L. (sulla). This survey has identified a number of accessions of each genus that may have potential for use in forage legume breeding programs.

The winter diets of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep in Banff National Park were studied to determine whether the age—sex classes have evolved differences in food exploitation patterns under selective pressure to reduce intrapopulation competition. Rams remained primarily on the north end of the study area while the "non—ram" superclass (ewes, lambs, yearlings) occupied primarily the south end. Vegetation analysis indicated that the southern part of the range was characterized by relatively more Bromus, Carex, Koeleria, Poa, Oxytropis, and Juniperus and less Festuca, Fragaria, Hedysarum, Arctostaphylos, and Rosa than the northern portion. In addition, the southern part of the range was typified by less soil, more xeric conditions, lower plant biomass and apparently overgrazed conditions relative to the more northern parts. Ewes, lambs, and yearlings were found to have diets more similar to each other than to that of adult rams. Class effects in multivariate statistical analysis were significant; the major univariate differences were that non—rams ate more Carex and less Festuca than did rams. This class effect was found to be wholly attributable to the fact that rams and non—rams segregate onto separate portions of the range which contain different availabilities of forage plants. It was considered to be unlikely that the spatial separation arose from diet preferences but rather from some unrelated factor. The observed differences should not be considered as an adaption for competition reduction.

Comparisons were made of the soil fungi isolated from three diverse alpine sites. The sites studied were a grass slope (Bromus association) at 1900 m, an alpine meadow (Dryas association) at 2530 m, and a summit ridge (Oxytropis association) at 2840 m. The effects of season, soil depth, and substrate type on the distribution of fungi were also examined. In a principal component analysis, most of the variation in mycoflora composition was attributed to differences among the sites. All taxa tested using a factorial analysis of variance showed significant differences in isolation frequency among the three sites. About half showed significant variation with season. For total fungi, the effect of seasonal change was the smallest of the four factors studied. Seasonal changes were not unidirectional, instead the composition of the fungal community shifted to one extreme in summer, with the direction of this change later reversing to another extreme in the fall opposite to that of the summer. The frequency of occurrence of most taxa was inversely related to soil depth. However, Chrysosporium pannormn, Penicillium restrictum. Penicillium canescens, and sterile fungi showed the opposite trend.The fungal communities were characterized by a few frequently isolated species, and a much larger proportion of infrequently isolated forms. All the dominant species were also widely distributed in temperate soils. The less frequently isolated species were usually highly aggregated in their distribution, with localized densities often exceeding those of the most frequently isolated forms. This pattern of distribution may have resulted from specialization on a niche dimension that was not widely distributed in the soils studied. Dominant species were less aggregated and more widely distributed, possibly reflecting a broad or diverse niche space for these species.

Rhizobium strain N31, isolated from the arctic legume Astragalus alpinus, nodulates sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia) as efficiently as strain SM-2, isolated from sainfoin. Nodule shape and tissue arrangement of 70-day-old plants infected by these two strains were examined. Sainfoin nodules formed by either strain N31 or SM-2 were cylindrical, with indeterminate growth, and similar to those found on arctic legumes. However, in the active symbiotic zone of sainfoin nodules, bacteroids of strain N31 were pleiomorphic or spherical and found individually or in groups of three, surrounded by the membrane envelope, whereas the bacteroids of strain SM-2 were elongated and enclosed in clusters of 3 to 12 by each membrane envelope. Thus, arctic strain N31 affects the internal structure of sainfoin nodules. Nodules of arctic legumes A. alpinus, Oxytropis maydelliana, and Oxytropis arctobia, infected with either strain N31 or SM-2, contained lipid droplets, while sainfoin nodules did not show such characteristics. This phenomenon seems specific to arctic legumes and it is not influenced by the origin of the nodulating strain.

Chromosome numbers and taxonomic notes are presented for 33 Alaskan vascular taxa. First counts are reported for Aquilegia brevistyla Hooker, Draba murrayi Mulligan, Erysimum angustatum Rydberg, Smelowskia calycina ssp. media Drury & Rollins, Thlaspi arcticum Porsild, Oxytropis kobukensis Welsh, Cryptantha shackletteana Higgins, Mertensia drummondii (Lehmann) G. Don, and Erigeron muirii Gray. New ploidy levels are noted for Draba lactea Adams, Oxytropis campestris ssp. varions (Rydberg) Barneby, Oxytropis viscida Nuttall, Oxytropis scammaniana Hultén, Mertensia paniculata (Aiton) G. Don, Castilleja caudata (Pennell) Rebrecht, Artemisia senjavinensis Besser, Erigeron caespitosus Nuttall, and Erigeron grandiflorus Hooker. Infraspecific ploidy is discussed for Luzula arcuata (Wahlenberg) Swartz, Lloydia serotina (L.) Rchb., Rumex arcticus Trautvetter, Claytonia sibirica L., Papaver nudicaule L., Oxytropis campestris (L.) DC. complex, Epilobium latifolium L., and Artemisia tilesii Ledebour.

The poisoning of livestock by locoweeds (plants of the genera Astragahs and Oxytropis) in the United States was first reported in 187315. Since that time, numerous reports have been published on various aspects of the disease such as the clinical signs in domestic animals, the sequelae of loco poisoning, the species of plants involved, and substances in locoweeds that might induce the signs of poisoning2-6% 8% 10912-18,209 22. Although many clinical signs have been reported from locoweed intoxication, such reports have not always agreed. MARSH reported slow, staggering gait, rough coat, staring look, emaciation, lack of muscular coordination, and extreme nervousness15. JAMES et al.8 have emphasized the abortive and teratogenic consequences in sheep and cattle. These clinical signs might be more explicitly expressed as : central nervous impairment resulting in diminished or lost control of motor function and proprioception, emaciation, and reproductive disorders resulting in abortion or teratogenesis. An adequate description is lacking of the lesions of locoweed intoxication in sheep. MATHEWS17 described various gross changes and a generalized neuronal degeneration. OEHME et al.18 reported vacuolar degeneration of neurons in horses poisoned under field conditions. They did not attempt extensive histochemical studies to determine the nature of the lesions. Our own study of tissues collected from field cases of locoweed poisoning in sheep indicated severe vacuolar degenerative changes in the parenchymal cells of central nervous system, liver, kidney, and various endocrine organs. This study was designed to induce locoweed poisoning in sheep

Linnaeus in the first edition of the Species Plantarum admitted two genera, Phaca and Astragalus, the former containing 3 species, the latter 33. Turning to the fifth edition of his Genera Plantarum, which was published a year later and which better illustrates Linnaeus' concepts of genera than does the Species Plantarum, we find that the most essential character which separates Phaca from Astragalus, is the i-celled legume of the former and the 2-celled one of the latter. The partition dividing the pod of Astragalus is formed by the invagination of the edges of the valves at the lower suture. In certain species, regarded by some as belonging to Phaca, the lower suture is infolded, forming a deep sulcus, but in Astragalus the development has gone a step farther so that the backs of the two valves have fused along the lower edge of the pod, thus forming a double-walled septum. In those species, which the writer regards as representing the genus Astragalus proper, this septum meets the upper suture of the pod and fuses with the same. This is the case in most of the species included in Astragalus by Linnaeus. In a few of them the septum does not extend to the-upper suture and forms only a partial partition, as for instance in A. alpinus. Such species have been referred by some of the later authors to Phaca. In others the partition is formed by the intrusion of the upper suture instead of the lower. These constitute a part of Oxytropis DC. In some species of Cystium, the partition is formed in small part by the upper suture also. In the genus Astragalus, as treated by Bunge, Boissier, Bentham and Hooker, Gray, and later by Taubert in the Pflanzenfamilien, where even Phaca L. and Tragacantha Tourn. are merged in it, the pod has been allowed such an unlimited variation that even Homalobus Nutt. and Kentrophyta Nutt. have been included. These two genera do not even agree with the characters given by Bentham and Hooker or by Taubert as distinguishing the subtribe ASTRAGALANAE. Using their keys or synopsis, anyone would place these genera in the ROBINIANAE. The first segregation from Astragalus was done by Necker in I780, in his Elementa, where Aragallus and Spiesia were published. The former was segregated from Astragalus by the subacaulescent habit, and based on 12 species constituting one group of that genus in the I4th edition of Linnaeus' Systema (edited by Murray). There is not any doubt as to what constituted Necker's concept of the genus, but it is impossible to determine which 584

SynopsisOn the European continent, Uromyces punctatus is heterœcious and occurs on 35 species and 1 variety of Astragalus, 6 species of Oxytropis and 1 species of Onobrychis. There are 3 æcidial hosts recorded, the major one being Euphorbia cyparissias. At St Andrews, the uredo stage of the rust is confined to A. danicus and only uredospores and teleutospores have been found. Experiments conducted showed that the local population of the rust was capable of infecting 9 species of Astragalus and 1 species of Medicago, out of 27 species of Astragalus, 5 species of Medicago and 28 species of other legumes inoculated. No host specialization within the local population was evident. Attempts to germinate the teleutospores, using a variety of methods, failed, with the exception of a single spore. The major æcidial host, when inoculated with teleutospores, failed to show any signs of æcidial infection over a period of four years. Possible factors affecting the shortening of the life cycle of the rust are discussed.

The paper gives the chromosome numbers of 45 species from 72 Mongolian localities, belonging to the genera:Amygdalus, Asparagus, Astragalus, Cancrinia, Caragana, Chamaerhodos, Chelidonium, Chesneya, Dianthus, Hypecoum, Lathyrus, Lilium, Oxytropis, Papaver, Potentilla, Schizonepeta, Sibbaldia, Thermopsis, Trifolium, Trigonella, Vicia. Chromosome morphology of three species ofChamaerhodos and taxonomical remarks on some other species are added. A new combinationSibbaldia sericea (Grubov) Sojak is proposed.

Chromosome counts have; been obtained for 71 collections; seven tribes, 11 genera, and 39 species of the Leguminosae are represented. Pollen mother cells were collected in the field and examined in acetocarmine. Twenty of the species studied were in the tribe Galegeae: Astragalus 14 species, Oxytropis five species, and Glycyrrhiza one species. Twenty-nine of the counts have not been published before. Consideration is given to the phylogeny of Astragalus. Evidence suggests that Astragalus should be subdivided.

In many studied plants, typical responses to cold treatment include up-regulating the hydrophilic COR/LEA genes and down-regulating photosynthesis-related genes, carbohydrate metabolism, GDSL-motif lipase, hormone metabolism and oxidative regulation genes. However, next to nothing is known about gene expression in arctic plants, which are actually adapted to a harsh, cold environment. The molecular mechanisms behind the many specific adaptations of arctic plants, such as slow growth, well-developed root systems and short stature, are not well understood. In this study, we examine whole plantlet transcriptome differences between two arctic and two temperate Oxytropis (Fabaceae) species, grown under their respective controlled environmental conditions. Gene expression differences are analyzed using cDNA library subtraction followed by expressed sequence tags sequencing and annotation. Sequences from a total of nearly 2,000 clones cluster into 121 and 368 unique genes from the arctic and from the temperate plants, respectively. The predominant biological process for genes from the arctic-enriched library is “response to stimulus”. A concurrent overexpression of pathogenesis-related class 10 proteins (PR-10), plant defensin and cold dehydrin genes is a novel feature for species adapted to stressful growth environment. The temperate-enriched genes are involved in photosynthesis, translation and nucleosome assembly. Interestingly, both arctic and temperate-enriched libraries also contain genes involved in ribosome biogenesis and assembly, however of different types. Real-time reverse transcription PCR of cold dehydrin and two PR-10 genes, as well as the light harvesting complex b1 genes demonstrates that the gene expression is dependent on species and growth conditions. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10142-011-0223-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.