Lotus corniculatus

Bird's-foot trefoil

Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Bird's-foot trefoil is a naturalized perennial herb found in California's Foothill Woodlands and Great Basin regions in open, disturbed areas at elevations below 1,000 meters. Flowering from June to September, this plant produces bright yellow flowers in small clusters of 3 to 7 blooms. Growing with decumbent or ascending stems up to 30 centimeters tall, it forms low-spreading clumps with a delicate, ground-hugging habit. Its distinctive leaves have five leaflets, each 4 to 22 millimeters long, with rounded tips that often have a soft point. The plant develops narrow elongated seed pods 1.5 to 3 centimeters long, which give it the distinctive "bird's foot" appearance that inspired its common name.

Habitat: Open, disturbed areas

Bloom period: Jun-Sep

Elevation: < 1000 m

Bioregions: CA-FP, GB

California counties: San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Diego, Riverside, San Francisco, Kern, Inyo, Contra Costa, Shasta, Marin, Plumas, Santa Clara, Solano, San Mateo, Colusa, Butte, Mendocino, Tulare, Humboldt, San Luis Obispo, Lake, Glenn, Orange, Siskiyou, Monterey, Fresno, Sacramento, Yolo, Placer, El Dorado, Alpine, Nevada, Modoc, Alameda, Lassen, Tehama, Sutter, Yuba, Stanislaus, Napa, Del Norte, Kings, Trinity, San Joaquin, Merced, Sonoma, Madera, San Benito

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