Lotus, a latinization of Greek lōtos, is a genus of flowering plants that includes most bird's-foot trefoils and deervetches and contains many dozens of species distributed in the eastern hemisphere, including Africa, Europe, western, southern, and eastern Asia, and Australia and New Guinea. Depending on the taxonomic authority, roughly between 70 and 150 are accepted. Lotus is a genus of legumes and its members are adapted to a wide range of habitats, from coastal environments to high elevations.
Acmispon glaber is a perennial subshrub in the family Fabaceae. The plant is a pioneer species found in dry areas of California, Arizona, and Mexico. It is commonly found in many areas including chaparral, coastal sand and roadsides at elevations below 1500 m.
Acmispon argyraeus, synonym Lotus argyraeus, is a species of legume native to California and northwest Mexico. It is known by the common name canyon bird's-foot trefoil. It occurs in dry mountain habitat. It is a perennial herb lined with leaves each made up of a few oval leaflike leaflets about 1 cm long. Most of the plant is silky-hairy in texture. The inflorescence holds one to three pinkish-yellow flowers roughly 1 cm long. The fruit is a dehiscent legume pod up to 2.5 cm long.
Acmispon cytisoides, synonyms Lotus benthamii and Syrmatium cytisoides, is a species of legume native to California. It is known by the common names Bentham's broom and Bentham's deerweed. It is endemic to central California, where it occurs along the Central Coast and into the coastal mountain ranges. It grows in oceanside habitat and inland on slopes and in canyons. It is a mat-forming or spreading perennial herb lined with leaves each made up of a few oval leaflike leaflets up to 12 mm long. The inflorescence bears up to 10 dull pinkish dark-veined flowers, each just under 1 cm long.
Acmispon dendroideus, synonym Syrmatium veatchii, is a species of legume native to California. It is known by the common name island broom. It is endemic to the Channel Islands of California, where it grows on coastal bluffs and cliffs. It is a spreading perennial herb or erect shrub approaching 2 meters in height. It is hairless to hairy and gray-green in color. The branches lined with leaves each made up of a few oval leaflike leaflets up to 1.5 centimeters long each. The inflorescence bears up to 10 yellow pealike flowers, each roughly a centimeter long and fading red as they age.
Acmispon grandiflorus, synonym Lotus grandiflorus, is a species of legume native to western North America. It is known by the common name chaparral bird's-foot trefoil.
Acmispon micranthus is a species of legume native to California and northwestern Mexico. It is known by the common name San Diego bird's-foot trefoil. It is found in the coastal mountain ranges of California and Baja California, where it grows in various types of scrub and canyon habitat. It is an annual herb taking a spreading or upright form. It is lined with leaves each made up of oval leaflets each about a centimeter long. The inflorescence is a small bunch of red and yellow flowers. Each flower is in a tubular calyx of sepals and is only a few millimeters long. The fruit is a narrow, bent legume pod up to 1.5 centimeters long, including the hooked beak at the tip.
Acmispon haydonii, synonyms Lotus haydonii and Syrmatium haydonii, is a species of legume native to California It is known by the common names pygmy lotus, rock bird's-foot trefoil and Haydon's lotus.
Acmispon heermannii is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae known by the common names Heermann's bird's-foot trefoil and Heermann's lotus. It is native to the coastal plains, canyons, and mountains of California and Baja California, where it is known from several types of oceanside and inland habitat. It is a mat-forming perennial herb spreading straight stems along the ground. It is lined with leaves made up of several hairy oval leaflets. The inflorescence is a cluster of 3 to 8 flowers each up to about a centimeter long. The petals are yellow, often with dark lobes. The fruit is a curved, beaked legume pod.
Hosackia incana, synonym Lotus incanus, is a species of legume native to California. It is known by the common name woolly bird's-foot trefoil. It is endemic to the Sierra Nevada of California, where it grows in forests and other mountain habitat.
Acmispon junceus, synonyms Lotus junceus and Syrmatium junceum, is a species of legume native to California. It is known by the common names rush broom and rush deervetch. It is endemic to California, where it is known from the northern and central coast and the coastal mountain ranges. It can be found from beaches inland to serpentine slopes and chaparral. It is a hairy, prostrate or spreading perennial herb lined with leaves each made up of small oval leaflets. The inflorescence bears up 8 yellow pealike flowers each up to about a centimeter long. The fruit is a small beaked legume pod.
Acmispon prostratus, synonyms Lotus nuttallianus and Syrmatium prostratum, is a species of legume native to California and northwestern Mexico. It is known by the common names beach lotus, Nuttall's lotus, and wire bird's-foot trefoil. It is native to Baja California and just into San Diego County, California, where it is a resident of coastal habitats, such as beaches and bluffs.
Acmispon procumbens, synonym Lotus procumbens, is a species of legume endemic to California. It is known by the common name silky deerweed. It is known from many habitat types in several regions from the Central Valley to the Mojave Desert to the Peninsular Ranges.
Acmispon rubriflorus, synonym Lotus rubriflorus, is a species of legume endemic to California. It is known by the common name red-flowered bird's-foot trefoil. It is known from only four occurrences with a disjunct distribution.
Acmispon maritimus, synonym Lotus salsuginosus, is a species of legume native to Arizona, California and northwestern Mexico. It is known by the common name coastal bird's-foot trefoil. It grows in many types of mountain, desert, and scrub habitat, not necessarily near the coast. It is an annual herb quite variable in morphology, from petite to bushy, hairless to roughly hairy, and prostrate to erect in form. The slender stems are lined with leaves each made up of pairs of leaflets variable in shape and size. The inflorescence is a small array of 1 to 4 yellow flowers, each up to a centimeter long or so. The elongated flower corolla emerges from a tubular calyx of sepals. The fruit is a legume pod up to 3 centimeters long. Laboratory studies have shown this species, which occurs in wildfire-prone habitat such as chaparral, to have an increased rate of seed germination after exposure to heat.
Acmispon is a genus of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae (legumes), native to North America and the west coast of Chile in South America. It includes several species of American bird's-foot trefoils and deervetches formerly contained in the globally distributed genus Lotus. The former genus Syrmatium is included in Acmispon. The Jepson eFlora accepts only Acmispon.
Acmispon americanus, known by the common names American bird's-foot trefoil and Spanish clover, is a species of legume native to most habitats of California, the Western United States, Western Canada, and northern Mexico.
Acmispon mearnsii, synonym Lotus mearnsii, is a species of flowering plant in the legume family endemic to Arizona in the United States. It known by the common name Mearns' bird's-foot trefoil. In Arizona, it occurs in Coconino, Navajo, and Yavapai Counties.
Acmispon strigosus, synonyms Lotus strigosus and Ottleya strigosa, is a flowering plant in the pea family (Fabaceae), native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It is known as stiff-haired lotus or strigose bird's-foot trefoil.
Syrmatium was a formerly accepted genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae (legumes), native to the southwestern United States. As of February 2021, it was considered a synonym of Acmispon by Plants of the World Online, and only Acmispon was recognized by the Jepson eFlora.
