Acmispon americanus var. americanus

American bird's foot trefoil

Family: Fabaceae · Type: annual · Native

American bird's foot trefoil is a California native annual found in coast, chaparral, mountain forest, and disturbed areas throughout California (except Desert Southwest) at elevations below 2,400 meters. Flowering from May to October, this plant produces white to yellow or pink flowers 5 to 9 millimeters long, with wings nearly equal to the keel. Growing prostrate to erect with hairy stems 0.5 to 6 decimeters tall, it can be simple or openly branched. Its leaves are pinnate with three leaflets generally 10 to 20 millimeters long, lanceolate to elliptic in shape. The fruit is a dehiscent pod 1.5 to 3 centimeters long with a curved beak, containing 3 to 8 seeds.

Habitat: Coast, chaparral, mountain forest, water courses, roadsides, other disturbed areas

Bloom period: May-Oct

Elevation: < 2400 m

Bioregions: CA (exc DSon)

California counties: Butte, Modoc, San Diego, San Bernardino, Kern, Alpine, Orange, Tulare, Alameda, Riverside, Mono, Shasta, Placer, San Luis Obispo, Marin, El Dorado, Nevada, Los Angeles, Lassen, Madera, Plumas, Trinity, Lake, Siskiyou, Sierra, Fresno, Merced, Tehama, Colusa, Mendocino, Yuba, Contra Costa, Del Norte, Napa, Tuolumne, Sonoma, San Mateo, Ventura, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Stanislaus, Santa Cruz, Mariposa, Sacramento, Calaveras, Glenn, Amador, Santa Clara, Solano, Yolo, Humboldt, San Joaquin, Inyo

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.