Acmispon denticulatus |
Acmispon utahensis |
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meadow birds-foot trefoil, meadow lotus, Mohave trefoil, riverbar bird's-foot-trefoil, riverbar lotus, riverbar trefoil, tooth lotus |
Utah bird's-foot trefoil, Utah deervetch or lotus |
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Habit | Herbs, annual, cespitose, often glaucous, 0.3–4 dm, not fleshy, glabrous or hirsute; taprooted. | Herbs, perennial, cespitose, greenish or grayish (base), 1–5 dm, not fleshy, puberulent to sparsely strigose or glabrate; rhizomatous caudex from a taproot. |
Stems | 1(–5), decumbent to erect, apically or basally coarse-branched, herbaceous, leafy. |
1–10+, decumbent to ascending or erect, branched sparsely, stiff, leafy, base without persistent leaves. |
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. |
palmate, homomorphic; stipules ovate; sessile; rachis absent; leaflets (2–)4–6, blades linear-oblanceolate to oblanceolate, apex acute to obtuse, surfaces villous to strigose. |
Inflorescences | 1 or 2-flowered. |
(1 or)2–5(or 6)-flowered. |
Peduncles | ± sessile; bract absent. |
ascending to deflexed, curved to erect, (10–)20–50(–80) mm, longer than leaves; bract 1–3-foliolate, subtending umbel. |
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. |
8–15 mm; calyx 5–7.5 mm, tube villous, lobes subulate; corolla yellow with red-backed banner, often suffused with red, turning orange, claws shorter than calyx tube, banner recurved ca. 45°, pandurate, wings longer than keel (nearly equaling banner); style straight, 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, spreading or deflexed, reddish to grayish brown, ± straight, turgid, not constricted, incompletely septate, linear-oblong, (14–)25–35 × 1.5–3.5 mm, leathery, apex short-beaked, dehiscent, smooth, lustrous, margins keeled, strigillose or glabrous. |
Seeds | (2 or)3(or 4), gray, faintly mottled, asymmetrically ± angular-obovoid, flattened, smooth. |
(1–)3–6, olive green to dark brown, mottled, oblong, smooth. |
2n | = 12. |
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Acmispon denticulatus |
Acmispon utahensis |
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Phenology | Flowering spring–summer. | 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. | Open places, dry, stony or sandy soils, sagebrush, desert scrub, pinyon-juniper woodlands, chaparral, oak woodlands, yellow pine or spruce-aspen forests, riparian communities. |
Elevation | 0–1900 m. (0–6200 ft.) | (1500–)1700–2900 m. ((4900–)5600–9500 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; ID; OR; UT; WA; BC
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AZ; NV; UT
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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.) |
Acmispon utahensis is nearly restricted to Utah, barely penetrating into Arizona and Nevada. It is encountered on the plateaus of the intermountain region. It is reported to hybridize with A. rigidus and A. wrightii (A. M. Ottley 1944). (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 | ||
Synonyms | Hosackia denticulata, Anisolotus denticulatus, Lotus denticulatus | Lotus utahensis, Ottleya utahensis |
Name authority | (Drew) D. D. Sokoloff: Ann. Bot. Fenn. 37: 130. (2000) | (Ottley) Brouillet: J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 2: 392. (2008) |
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