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Pink Lady Slipper
The Pink Lady Slipper (Astragalus utahensis) is another
early blooming flower. With gray green woolly leaves, growing in a
circular rosette, the flowers are lovely. The seed pods look like little
woolly lambs. Astragalus can take up selenium if it is in the soil, and
become poisonous to cattle and horses -- it is thus called Loco Weed.
Dixie Rose, in her book "Utah's Intermountain Wildflowers", calls it the
Utah Loco, and describes it as follows: "A low plant, downy pinnate leaves.
Inch-long pea flowers, pinkish lavender, sometimes called Lady Fingers.
Woolly seedpods are unique. A delightful species, but poisonous to stock.
Dry gravelly soil."
In "Mountain Plants of Northeastern Utah", a publication of Utah State
University, it states: "The Pink Lady Slipper is one of the most attractive
species we have. It grows flat on the ground in a circular mat about 14
inches in diameter. The leaves are gray, woolly pubescent. In April and May
it has racemes of bright magenta flowers at the end of leafless stems. The
blossoms are about one inch long and one half inch wide. The seed pods are
so pubescent that they resemble bits of white fur.
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