The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

meadow lotus, riverbar lotus

colchita, hill lotus

Habit Plants annual, glabrous or hirsute, often glaucous. Plants annual, conspicuously villous to glabrate.
Stems

1–5, decumbent to erect, 0.5–4 dm.

1–20, procumbent to low-ascending, 0.5–4 dm.

Leaves

subpinnately, pinnately or palmately compound;

leaflets 2–4, often 1 or 2 on one side of the rachis and 2 terminal, elliptic to obovate;

margins entire or denticulate;

tips acute to obtuse;

surfaces hirsute;

rachises 5–12 mm, flattened, petiolate.

pinnately or palmately compound;

leaflets 3–5, usually 2 on one side of the rachis and 2 terminal, elliptic to obovate, oblanceolate;

tips usually obtuse, sometimes acute;

surfaces villous to glabrate;

rachises 4–10 mm, flattened, sessile or subsessile.

Inflorescences

1–2-flowered;

bracts 0; ± sessile.

1-flowered; ± sessile;

bracts 0.

Flowers

calyces 3–5 mm;

tubes hirsute or glabrous;

lobes subulate; ~1.5 × tube length;

corollas 5–8 mm, cream white, or pink to pale yellow;

banners purple-tinged;

keel tips yellowish.

calyces 3–6 mm;

tubes villous;

lobes lanceolate, 1–2 × tube length;

corollas 5–9 mm, yellow; reddish-tipped, turning red.

Fruits

dehiscent; erect or spreading; straight, widely oblong, 8–20 × 1–4 mm; tawny;

tips abruptly downward angled and curved, strigose or glabrous.

dehiscent, oblong; straight, 6–14 × 3–4 mm, brown or tawny;

tips erect, obtuse, villous.

Seeds

2–4, gray, faintly mottled.

2–5, tan to dark brown or blackish, faintly mottled.

2n

=14.

=12.

Acmispon denticulatus

Acmispon brachycarpus

Distribution
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Roadsides, fields, slopes, gravel bars, meadows. Flowering May–Aug. 50–1600 m. BW, CR, ECas, Lava, Sisk, WV. CA, ID, WA; north to British Columbia, southeast to UT. Native.

Pastures, creek banks, roadsides, hillsides, woodlands. Flowering Apr–Jul. 100–1600 m. Casc, ECas, Sisk, WV. CA, ID, NV; southeast to NM, south to Mexico. Native.

Source Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 651
Richard Halse
Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 651
Richard Halse
Sibling taxa
A. americanus, A. brachycarpus, A. nevadensis, A. parviflorus, A. wrangelianus
A. americanus, A. denticulatus, A. nevadensis, A. parviflorus, A. wrangelianus
Synonyms Hosackia denticulata, Lotus denticulatus Lotus humistratus
Web links