Acmispon argophyllus

Silver birds foot trefoil

Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Silver birds foot trefoil is a California native perennial found in coastal and southern California chaparral and coastal sage scrub habitats. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces yellow flowers in small head-like clusters with 4 to 15 blossoms. Growing with prostrate to erect stems 10 to 60 centimeters tall, it has a somewhat woody base covered in fine, silvery-gray hairs that give the plant a soft, silky appearance. Its leaves are irregularly pinnate with 3 to 7 obovate leaflets 6 to 12 millimeters long, densely covered with hairs that almost completely obscure the leaf surface. The fruit is a curved, half-ovate pod with a small 2 to 3 millimeter curved beak.

California counties: Tulare, San Bernardino, Monterey, Nevada, Santa Barbara, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Kern, Riverside, Los Angeles, Fresno, Imperial, Ventura, El Dorado

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