Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Ornithopus sativus subsp. sativus
Photo is of parent taxon

common bird's-foot
Stems

20–70 cm.
Leaves

30–70 × 10–20 mm;

stipules linear, 1–2 mm;

leaflets (9–)19–37, blades elliptical or ovate, leaflets of larger leaves 3.5–6 × 1.5–2.5 mm.
Peduncles

1–3 cm in flower, 3–7 cm in fruit.
Pedicels

0–1 mm.
Flowers

calyx 3.5–5 mm, lobes 1.5–2.5 mm, less than or equaling tube length;

corolla white or pink, 6–9 mm.
Heads

2–5-flowered, 10 mm diam.;

bract shorter than flowers, 5–9-foliolate.
Seeds

1.5–2 × 1 mm.
Loments

compressed, constricted between seeds, 12–25 × 2–2.7 mm;

segments 3–7, elliptic-oblong, 2.8–3.5 mm;

beaks straight, sometimes hooked at tip, 2–5 mm.

Ornithopus sativus subsp. sativus
Phenology Flowering late spring–early summer.
Habitat Roadsides, fields, waste places.
Elevation 10–100 m. (0–300 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; MA; MD; NY; s Europe (Mediterranean region); sw Asia; n Africa [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Subspecies sativus was previously cultivated for fodder in the flora area.

North American members of the species are subsp. sativus, which has fruits 12–25 mm, straight, without narrow cylindrical constrictions between seeds, and beaks 2–5 mm and straight, while subsp. isthmocarpus (Cosson) Dostál has fruits 20–40 mm, curved, long narrow cylindrical segments between seeds, and beaks 10+ mm and curved. Subspecies isthmocarpus has been reported from California, but the specimens seen are subsp. sativus.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Ornithopus > Ornithopus sativus
Synonyms O. roseus
Name authority unknown
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).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers