Acmispon denticulatus |
Acmispon strigosus |
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meadow birds-foot trefoil, meadow lotus, Mohave trefoil, riverbar bird's-foot-trefoil, riverbar lotus, riverbar trefoil, tooth lotus |
strigose lotus |
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Habit | Herbs, annual, cespitose, often glaucous, 0.3–4 dm, not fleshy, glabrous or hirsute; taprooted. | 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(–5), decumbent to erect, apically or basally coarse-branched, herbaceous, leafy. |
1–20+, procumbent or decumbent to ascending, branched basally, herbaceous, slender, leafy. |
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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. |
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 | 1 or 2-flowered. |
1–3-flowered. |
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Peduncles | ± sessile; bract absent. |
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 | 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. |
(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, 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, 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 | (2 or)3(or 4), gray, faintly mottled, asymmetrically ± angular-obovoid, flattened, smooth. |
5–10, greenish to brown, ± mottled, ovoid to cuboid or globose, rugulose or granular. |
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2n | = 12. |
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Acmispon denticulatus |
Acmispon strigosus |
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Phenology | Flowering spring–summer. | |||||||||
Habitat | Grassy slopes, meadows, prairies, clearings, gravel bars, stream banks, vernal pools, pastures, grainfields, usually sandy soils, sometimes alkali, clay, or serpentine soils, roadsides. | |||||||||
Elevation | 0–1900 m. (0–6200 ft.) | |||||||||
Distribution |
CA; ID; OR; UT; WA; BC
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sw United States; n Mexico |
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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.) |
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 denticulata, Anisolotus denticulatus, Lotus denticulatus | Hosackia strigosa, Anisolotus strigosus, Lotus strigosus, Ottleya strigosa | ||||||||
Name authority | (Drew) D. D. Sokoloff: Ann. Bot. Fenn. 37: 130. (2000) | (Nuttall) Brouillet: J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 2: 392. (2008) | ||||||||
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