Single Record
Participant Info
- Species
- Vexibia nuttalliana [Sophora nuttalliana] [Sophora sericea] [Vexibia sericea]
- Family
- Fabaceae
- CommonName
- necklace pod, white loco weed, sillky sophora
- Presence
- YES
- Status
- native
- EarliestDate
- 1915
- LatestDate
- 2023
- Ecosystem
- foothill, ruderal
- Geobotanical
- Garitas, NCristos
- Counties
- Saguache
- Passes
- WildlifePreserves
- Other Localities
- Comments
- Of Watershed vouchers of Vexibia nuttalliana (traditionally named Sophora nuttalliana), there are two from grasslands around the town of Saguache, (1915, 1936), and one from around the Orient Mine in the north Cristos (1935). So the plant had not been documented in the Watershed for around 90 years. Then a small colony was observed growing by a culvert under Hwy 285, 2.8 miles south of the town of Saguache (photorecord, June, 2023). The plant is toxic to grazing animals, and quite possibly nearly eradicated by humans in these two heavily ranched areas of the Valley. On the other hand, it may be under-recorded since it might be passed over as Oxytropis sericea or Astragalus scopulorum. A grassland plant of the Southwest and eastern Great Plains, including eastern Colorado, silky sophora is present in every county of New Mexico, and follows the Rio Grande drainage into the Big Bend country of Texas. For the genus name change from Sophora to Vexibia, see Pennington and Wojciechowski (2008). The change has not yet been accepted by FNA.
- Annotation