Acmispon strigosus

Strigose lotus

Family: Fabaceae · Type: annual · Native

Strigose lotus is a California native annual found in the Great Valley, Central Western, Southwestern, and Desert bioregions in coastal scrub, chaparral, foothills, and desert habitats at elevations below 2,300 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces yellow to orange flowers that may turn reddish with age, typically 5 to 10 millimeters long. Growing with prostrate stems often forming dense mats, it spreads 0.3 to 5 decimeters across and branches extensively from the base. Its leaves are irregularly pinnate with 4 to 9 oblanceolate to obovate leaflets, each 3 to 10 millimeters long, and distinctive black gland-like stipules. The fruit is a linear, generally curved pod 1 to 3.5 centimeters long with a small curved beak.

Habitat: Coastal scrub, chaparral, foothills, deserts, roadsides, other disturbed areas

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: < 2300 m

Bioregions: GV, CW, SW, D

California counties: San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, San Diego, Los Angeles, Kern, Riverside, Ventura, Tuolumne, Inyo, Imperial, Tulare, Santa Barbara, Sutter, Butte, Fresno, Plumas, San Mateo, Monterey, San Francisco, Madera, San Benito, Santa Clara, Mariposa, Santa Cruz, Sacramento, Napa, Merced, Sonoma, Yolo, Orange, Marin

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