Acmispon parviflorus

Hill lotus

Family: Fabaceae · Type: annual · Native

Hill lotus is a California native annual found in northwestern California, the Cascade Range, northern and central Sierra Nevada, southern Sierra Nevada foothills, Sacramento Valley, central western California, southern coastal California, northern Channel Islands, Transverse Ranges, and Peninsular Ranges in coastal bluffs to oak and pine woodland at elevations below 1,300 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces pink to salmon-colored flowers 4 to 6 millimeters long that quickly fade. Growing with ascending to erect stems 5 to 40 centimeters tall, it has a delicate, sparsely hairy structure. Its leaves are irregularly pinnate with 3 to 5 elliptic to obovate leaflets 4 to 12 millimeters long, arranged along a sometimes flattened leaf axis. The fruit is an erect, oblong pod 1.5 to 2.5 centimeters long with slightly wavy margins and a small curved beak.

Habitat: Abundant. Coastal bluffs to oak/pine or fir woodland, open or disturbed areas

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: < 1300 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, n&ampc SN, s SNF, ScV, CW, SCo, n ChI, TR, PR

California counties: Humboldt, San Luis Obispo, Tulare, Amador, Marin, Butte, Tehama, Shasta, Siskiyou, Sutter, Sierra, Calaveras, Mendocino, Nevada, Los Angeles, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Monterey, Madera, Plumas, Alameda, Sacramento, Ventura, San Diego, Placer, San Francisco, Riverside, El Dorado, Santa Clara, Napa, Yuba, Solano, Stanislaus, Sonoma, Lake, Santa Cruz, Tuolumne, Fresno, Imperial

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