Flora of North America species comparison

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Acmispon utahensis

Utah bird's-foot trefoil, Utah deervetch or lotus
Habit Herbs, perennial, cespitose, greenish or grayish (base), 1–5 dm, not fleshy, puberulent to sparsely strigose or glabrate; rhizomatous caudex from a taproot.
Stems

1–10+, decumbent to ascending or erect, branched sparsely, stiff, leafy, base without persistent leaves.
Leaves

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)2–5(or 6)-flowered.
Peduncles

ascending to deflexed, curved to erect, (10–)20–50(–80) mm, longer than leaves;

bract 1–3-foliolate, subtending umbel.
Flowers

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, 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

(1–)3–6, olive green to dark brown, mottled, oblong, smooth.

Acmispon utahensis
Phenology Flowering spring(–summer).
Habitat 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 (1500–)1700–2900 m. ((4900–)5600–9500 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; NV; UT
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

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.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Acmispon
Sibling taxa
A. americanus, A. argophyllus, A. argyraeus, A. brachycarpus, A. cytisoides, A. decumbens, A. dendroideus, A. denticulatus, 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. wrangelianus, A. wrightii
Synonyms Lotus utahensis, Ottleya utahensis
Name authority (Ottley) Brouillet: J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 2: 392. (2008)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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