Acmispon rigidus

Desert lotus

Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Desert lotus is a California native perennial found in the Peninsular Ranges and desert regions in chaparral, desert flats, washes, and foothills at elevations below 1,550 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces yellow to cream-colored flowers 12 to 24 millimeters long with distinctive wing petals larger than the keel. Growing with ascending, clustered branches 50 to 150 centimeters tall, it forms a shrub-like herb with fine, stiff hairs covering its stems. Its leaves are irregularly pinnate with 3 to 5 oblanceolate leaflets 5 to 17 millimeters long, each distinctly longer than wide. The plant produces slowly dehiscent linear fruits 2 to 4 centimeters long with a slightly curved beak, typically spreading or held erect above the foliage.

Habitat: Chaparral, desert flats, washes, foothills

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: < 1550 m

Bioregions: PR, D

California counties: Riverside, San Bernardino, Inyo, San Diego, Imperial

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