Acmispon maritimus

Coastal lotus

Family: Fabaceae · Type: annual · Native

Coastal lotus is a California native annual found in coastal regions, often in sandy or rocky habitats near the ocean. Flowering from March to August, this plant produces bright yellow flowers in small clusters of two to four blooms. Growing with prostrate or ascending stems 5 to 50 centimeters long, it has a fleshy, often clustered growth habit with delicate branching. Its leaves are irregularly pinnate with three to seven leaflets, each 5 to 15 millimeters long and obovate to nearly round. The fruit is a distinctive narrowly oblong pod, generally 1.5 to 3 centimeters long, often slightly curved with a small hooked beak.

California counties: Santa Barbara, Ventura, Monterey, Los Angeles, Fresno, San Luis Obispo, Riverside, San Diego, Orange, San Bernardino, Imperial

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