Acmispon argophyllus |
Acmispon strigosus |
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California deervetch or trefoil, silver bird's-foot trefoil, silver lotus |
strigose lotus |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, or subshrubs, cespitose and ± prostrate, or shrubby and spreading to ascending, low or robust, silvery or gray, 1–6(–10+) dm, not fleshy, tomentose to canescent or strigose; from woody caudices. | Herbs, annual, usually mat-forming, sometimes cespitose (ascending and bushy), green to grayish, 0.3–5 dm, not or ± fleshy, strigillose, hirsute, canescent-tomentose, or scantily pubescent; taprooted. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | 1–20+, prostrate or decumbent to ascending, branched, herbaceous, slender, or ± woody, leafy, sometimes congested at tips. |
1–20+, procumbent or decumbent to ascending, branched basally, herbaceous, slender, leafy. |
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Leaves | irregularly pinnate to subpalmate; stipules glandlike; short-petiolate; rachis 2–10 mm, ± flattened; leaflets (3 or)4 or 5(–7), blades obovate to elliptic-lanceolate or ovate, apex acute, surfaces densely sericeous. |
irregularly pinnate; stipules glandlike; subsessile; rachis 3–20 mm, flattened; leaflets 4–10, blades unequal, obovate to oblanceolate to linear-oblong or oblong, apex acute to obtuse or truncate, surfaces ± densely tomentose to glabrate. |
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Inflorescences | 3–20-flowered, capitate. |
1–3-flowered. |
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Peduncles | ascending, 0–6(–40) mm, shorter to longer than leaves; bract absent or unifoliolate, subtending umbel. |
ascending or reflexed, upturned, 3–25 mm, shorter to longer than leaves (often elongated in fruit); bract absent or 1–3-foliolate, usually subtending umbel. |
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Flowers | 6–12 mm; calyx 5–7 mm, tube densely villous, lobes subulate, shorter than or equal to tube; corolla yellow to orange, turning red or brown, claws shorter than calyx tube, banner implicate-ascending, wings ± equaling keel; style curved, glabrous. |
(5–)6–10(–12) mm; calyx 3–5.5 mm, tube ± sparsely strigillose or glabrous, lobes subulate; corolla yellow (sometimes banner orangish abaxially), turning orange or reddish, claws ± equaling calyx tube, banner implicate-ascending or remaining closely implicate, wings longer than keel; style corneously thickened, marked by color, straight, puberulent or glabrous. |
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Legumes | persistent, included to moderately (–strongly) exserted, ascending to divergent, reddish brown, arched, turgid, not constricted, not septate, lanceoloid, 6–10 × 1–2 mm, leathery, apex short-beaked, tapering, curved or geniculate, indehiscent, smooth, margins keeled smooth, glabrate to silky. |
persistent, exserted, erect or divergent, brown, straight to ± curved distally, compressed, not or slightly constricted, incompletely septate, linear-oblong, 10–35 × 2–3 mm, thinly leathery, apex initially short-beaked, dehiscent, smooth, margins smooth, thin, glabrous or ± strigose. |
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Seeds | 1 (or 2), tawny, mottled, curved-oblong, elongate, smooth. |
5–10, greenish to brown, ± mottled, ovoid to cuboid or globose, rugulose or granular. |
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Acmispon argophyllus |
Acmispon strigosus |
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Distribution | nw Mexico; California
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sw United States; n Mexico |
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Discussion | Varieties 6 (5 in the flora). D. Isely (1981) reported a potential hybrid between Acmispon argophyllus (variety not specified) and A. glaber (variety not specified). Variety ornithopus (Greene) Brouillet is endemic to Guadalupe Island (Baja California, Mexico). In a phylogeographic study of A. agrophylus, L. E. Wallace et al. (2017) showed that the insular endemic varieties are distinct, although var. argenteus is paraphyletic to var. adsurgens, with var. niveus of Santa Cruz sister to all remaining varieties in the species, including the continental ones. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Varieties 3 (3 in the flora). D. Isely (1981) discussed the variation in Acmispon strigosus (as Lotus), distinguishing three varieties, two rather distinct but with intergrading phases, and one apparently more transitional, although distinct enough to be recognized. These varieties were only noted for California in recent treatments (for example, L. Brouillet 2012, following D. Isely 1993). Nonetheless, the typical (for example, excluding intergrading phases) varieties represent recognizable morphologies that also have geographic distinction. Specimens representing intergradation seem to occur throughout the range of overlap of these varieties, sometimes rendering determination difficult. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Acmispon | Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Acmispon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Hosackia argophylla, Lotus argophyllus, Syrmatium argophyllum | Hosackia strigosa, Anisolotus strigosus, Lotus strigosus, Ottleya strigosa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (A. Gray) Brouillet: J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 2: 388. (2008) | (Nuttall) Brouillet: J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 2: 392. (2008) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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