Flora of North America species comparison

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Acmispon americanus

American bird's-foot trefoil, American deervetch, deer-vetch, prairie trefoil, Spanish clover, Spanish lotus
Habit Herbs, annual, solitary or cespitose, green, 0.5–6(–12) dm, not fleshy, glabrate to ± pilose; taprooted.
Stems

1–10+, erect to procumbent, branched proximally, herbaceous, leafy.
Leaves

pinnate;

stipules glandlike;

subsessile to short-petiolate;

rachis 0.5–3(–4) mm, not flattened;

leaflets (1–)3(–5), blades obovate, ovate, or elliptic to lanceolate, margins denticulate or entire, apex acute, surfaces sparsely appressed-hairy.
Inflorescences

1(or 2)-flowered.
Peduncles

in distal axils, ascending, 3–25 mm, longer than leaves;

bract unifoliolate, distal.
Flowers

(4–)5–9 mm;

calyx (2.5–)3–6.5 mm, tube pilose, lobes linear-lanceolate, accrescent;

corolla whitish or cream, turning pink or salmon, banner rose-striate, keel tip yellow, claws shorter than calyx tube, banner implicate-ascending to erect, wings ± equaling keel;

style abruptly angled upward 45°, glabrous.
Legumes

persistent, exserted, spreading or pendent, brown, straight or ± curved, compressed, slightly constricted, not septate, linear-oblong to narrowly oblong, (15–)20–30(–40) × (1.5–)2–2.5 mm, thinly leathery, apex abruptly downward angled and curved, dehiscent, smooth, margins smooth, thickened, glabrous.
Seeds

(3–)5–8, olive to light brown, often black-mottled, oblong, smooth.

Acmispon americanus
Distribution
North America; nw Mexico
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Herbs usually conspicuously pilose, sometimes glabrate; leaflet blades: length 3–3.5 times width.
var. americanus
1. Herbs glabrate; leaflet blades: length 4–5 times width.
var. helleri
Source FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Acmispon
Sibling taxa
A. argophyllus, A. argyraeus, A. brachycarpus, A. cytisoides, A. decumbens, A. dendroideus, A. denticulatus, A. glaber, A. grandiflorus, A. haydonii, A. intricatus, A. junceus, A. maritimus, A. mearnsii, A. micranthus, A. neomexicanus, A. parviflorus, A. plebeius, A. procumbens, A. prostratus, A. rigidus, A. rubriflorus, A. strigosus, A. tomentosus, A. utahensis, A. wrangelianus, A. wrightii
Subordinate taxa
A. americanus var. americanus, A. americanus var. helleri
Synonyms Trigonella americana, Hosackia americana
Name authority (Nuttall) Rydberg: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 40: 45. (1913)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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