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meadow birds-foot trefoil, meadow lotus, Mohave trefoil, riverbar bird's-foot-trefoil, riverbar lotus, riverbar trefoil, tooth lotus

haydon's deervetch or lotus, pygmy lotus

Habit Herbs, annual, cespitose, often glaucous, 0.3–4 dm, not fleshy, glabrous or hirsute; taprooted. Subshrubs, bushy, tangled, low, green, 1–20 dm, not fleshy, strigillose; from woody caudices.
Stems

1(–5), decumbent to erect, apically or basally coarse-branched, herbaceous, leafy.

1–20+, procumbent to ascending, branched, ± woody, wiry, remotely leafy, deciduous.

Leaves

subpinnate, pinnate, or palmate;

stipules glandlike or absent; petiolate;

rachis 5–12 mm, flattened;

leaflets 2–4, often 1 or 2 on one side and 2 terminal, blades elliptic to obovate (lateral sometimes asymmetric), margins denticulate or entire, apex acute to obtuse, surfaces hirsute.

subpalmate;

stipules glandlike or absent;

subsessile;

rachis absent;

leaflets 3, blades elliptic, apex obtuse, surfaces ± strigillose.

Inflorescences

1 or 2-flowered.

1(or 2)-flowered.

Peduncles

± sessile;

bract absent.

0–3 mm, shorter than leaves;

bract absent (reduced to stipule), distal.

Flowers

5–8 mm;

calyx 3–5 mm, tube hirsute or glabrous, lobes subulate, ± denticulate;

corolla cream-white to pale yellow, banner purple-tinged, keel tip yellowish, claws shorter to slightly longer than calyx tube, banner ascending, wings ± equaling keel, with deep, triangular auricle;

style curved, glabrous.

4–5 mm;

calyx 2.5–3 mm, tube ± strigillose, lobes subulate;

corolla usually yellow, sometimes ± pinkish or orangish, claws shorter than calyx tube, banner implicate-ascending, wings slightly shorter than to ± equaling keel;

style upcurved, glabrous.

Legumes

persistent, solitary or paired, exserted, erect or spreading, tawny, straight, compressed, slightly constricted, not septate, widely oblong, 8–20 × 3 mm, leathery, apex abruptly downward angled and curved, dehiscent, smooth, margins often undulate-verrucose, strigose or glabrous.

persistent, exserted, ascending to deflexed, tawny, curved, turgid, not or slightly constricted, not septate, oblong, (5–)6–9 × 1–1.5 mm, leathery, apex beaked, indehiscent, finely veined, margins smooth, sparsely strigillose to glabrate.

Seeds

(2 or)3(or 4), gray, faintly mottled, asymmetrically ± angular-obovoid, flattened, smooth.

1 or 2, greenish brown, not mottled, straight or ± curved, narrowly cylindric, smooth.

2n

= 12.

= 14.

Acmispon denticulatus

Acmispon haydonii

Phenology Flowering spring–summer. Flowering late winter–spring.
Habitat Grassy slopes, meadows, prairies, clearings, gravel bars, stream banks, vernal pools, pastures, grainfields, usually sandy soils, sometimes alkali, clay, or serpentine soils, roadsides. Dry rocky slopes, cliffs, mountain washes, creosote bush scrub to pinyon-juniper woodlands.
Elevation 0–1900 m. (0–6200 ft.) (100–)400–1300 m. ((300–)1300–4300 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; ID; OR; UT; WA; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA; Mexico (Baja California)
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Acmispon denticulatus occurs in California from the San Francisco Bay area, Sacramento Valley, and northern Sierra Nevada Foothills to the northwest, Cascade Range and Modoc Plateau, into adjacent southern Oregon (Siskiyou and Klamath regions), northward on both sides of the Cascade Range into southern British Columbia, with eastern outliers in southwestern Utah (Washington County), and in south-central Idaho (Lincoln County).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Acmispon haydonii grows along the western edge of the Sonoran Desert.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 11. FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Acmispon Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Acmispon
Sibling taxa
A. americanus, A. argophyllus, A. argyraeus, A. brachycarpus, A. cytisoides, A. decumbens, A. dendroideus, 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
A. americanus, A. argophyllus, A. argyraeus, A. brachycarpus, A. cytisoides, A. decumbens, A. dendroideus, A. denticulatus, A. glaber, A. grandiflorus, 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
Synonyms Hosackia denticulata, Anisolotus denticulatus, Lotus denticulatus Hosackia haydonii, Lotus haydonii, Syrmatium haydonii
Name authority (Drew) D. D. Sokoloff: Ann. Bot. Fenn. 37: 130. (2000) (Orcutt) Brouillet: J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 2: 390. (2008)
Web links