Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Herbaceous annuals, very small to robust, stems clustered, prostrate to ascending, herbage glabrous or strigose.

Leaves: Alternate, irregularly pinnate with 3-7 obovate to rounded, alternate leaflets, 0.5-1.5 cm long, the terminal leaflet the largest, blade axis flat, stipules inconspicuous.

Flowers: Bright yellow, with banner, wing, and keel petals, sepals 5, fused, calyx lobes shorter that the tube with strigose surfaces, stamens 10 with 9 filaments fused and the uppermost 1 free, pistil 1, style 1, stigma 1, glabrous, ovary superior, generally 1-chambered, ovules 1-many, hypanthium absent or flat to tubular, inflorescences generally 2-4-flowered on peduncles 5-15 mm long, flowers bracted or not.

Fruits: Narrowly oblong legumes, ascending and exserted, 1.5-3 cm long, curved to flat, occasionally with small horn-like processes and hooked beaks 0.5-1.5 mm long, fruits dehiscent. Seeds 5-9 per legume.

Ecology: Found on dry soils on hills and mesas, to 3,000 ft (914 m); flowering February-May.

Distribution: Arizona, California; Mexico.

Notes: This low-growing lotus has bright yellow flowers and thickish, puberulent to white-hairy leaves.

Ethnobotany: Specific uses for this species are unknown, but other species in the genus have uses.

Etymology: Acmispon comes from the Greek acme for point or hook, and salsuginosus means growing in places overflowed by salt water, e.g. salt marshes.

Synonyms: Anisolotus maritimus, Hosackia maritima, Lotus salsuginosus

Editor: LCrumbacher2012

Plant: Annual, often fleshy, very small to robust, glabrous or strigose; stems clustered, prostrate or ascending

Leaves: irregularly pinnate; stipules generally not apparent; leaflets 3-7, ± alternate, 0.5-1.5 cm, obovate or ± round, terminal largest; axis flat, ± blade-like

INFLORESCENCE: umbel, 2-4-flowered (fruit often only 1); peduncle bract leaf- or leaflet-like or perhaps 0

Flowers: calyx 2-4 mm, lobes < tube; corolla 3.5-10 mm, wings ± = or < keel; stamens 10, 9 filaments fused, 1 free

Fruit: legumes, dehiscent, generally 1.5-3 cm, narrowly oblong, often curved; beak short, hooked; Seeds few-many, often ± reniform, generally hard, smooth

Misc: Coastal scrub, foothill woodlands, washes, talus, deserts including mtns; < 1850 m

References: Jepson Manual 1993