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chaparral bird's-foot trefoil, large leaf lotus, large-flower lotus

Photo is of parent taxon

mountain chaparral lotus

Habit Herbs, perennial, cespitose, sometimes robust, grayish or green, 1–4(–15) dm, not fleshy, ± densely puberulent or strigillose; rhizomatous, woody based. Herbs strigillose or puberulent, green.
Stems

1–5+, decumbent to erect, branched, herbaceous, often striate, leafy.

Leaves

irregularly pinnate;

stipules glandlike, conic; petiolate or sessile;

rachis 2–3.5(–5.5) mm, not flattened;

leaflets 7–9(–12), blades usually elliptic to obovate, sometimes ovate, apex acute to obtuse, surfaces sparsely to densely puberulent or villosulous to strigillose.

Inflorescences

3–9(–11)-flowered.

Peduncles

ascending or spreading, 10–80 mm, longer than leaves;

bract 1(–3)-foliolate, distal.

Flowers

12–25 mm;

calyx (4.5–)5.5–10 mm, tube villosulous, lobes subulate;

corolla greenish white, white or yellow, fading to rose or reddish, claws shorter than calyx tube, banner ascending 45–90°, wings longer than banner and keel;

style nearly straight or basally curved, glabrous.

Legumes

persistent, exserted, brown, linear-oblong, straight, turgid, sometimes slightly constricted, incompletely septate, 25–42(–70) × 2–3 mm, leathery, apex short hook-beaked, dehiscent, smooth, margins smooth, thickened, glabrate.

Ovules

ca. 45.

Seeds

5–9, olive to reddish brown, mottled, broadly ovoid, smooth.

Acmispon grandiflorus

Acmispon grandiflorus var. macranthus

Phenology Flowering spring.
Habitat Ponderosa pine, oak-pine, or semi-open mixed conifer forests, chaparral, clayey, sandy, gravelly, or cobbly volcanic soils, wet or moist, gravelly stream bottoms and banks, gravelly roadsides.
Elevation 300–1800 m. (1000–5900 ft.)
Distribution
nw Mexico; California
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

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

Variety macranthus is known from the northern and central Sierra Nevada and the Cascade Range. Lotus macranthus (Greene) Greene 1890 (not Lowe 1838) is an illegitimate name that pertains here.

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

Key
1. Herbs densely puberulent or villosulous, usually grayish; ovules 22–30.
var. grandiflorus
1. Herbs strigillose or puberulent, green; ovules ca. 45.
var. macranthus
Source FNA vol. 11. FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Acmispon Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Acmispon > Acmispon grandiflorus
Sibling taxa
A. americanus, A. argophyllus, A. argyraeus, A. brachycarpus, A. cytisoides, A. decumbens, A. dendroideus, A. denticulatus, A. glaber, 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. grandiflorus var. grandiflorus
Subordinate taxa
A. grandiflorus var. grandiflorus, A. grandiflorus var. macranthus
Synonyms Hosackia grandiflora, Anisolotus grandiflorus, Lotus grandiflorus, Ottleya grandiflora Hosackia macrantha, Anisolotus macranthus, Lotus grandiflorus var. macranthus
Name authority (Bentham) Brouillet: J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 2: 390. (2008) (Greene) Brouillet: J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 2: 390. (2008)
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