Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Annual forb with erect, ascending, or decumbent stems 0.5-20 cm long, whole plant is densely villous with white to slightly tawny, soft hairs.

Leaves: Petioles short, rarely over 5 mm long, rachises of leaves flattened, 5-8 mm long, leaflets 3-5, broadly elliptic to obovate, 2-6 mm wide, 4-15 mm long, cuneate at base, acute to rounded at apex.

Flowers: Subsessile, solitary or in paris in axils of leaves, calyx tube 2-2.5 mm long, yellow tinged with red or rose.

Fruits: Pods 2-3 mm wide, 5-10 mm long densely villous.

Ecology: Found on dry gravelly slopes and sandy flats from 5,000 ft (1524 m) and below; flowers March-June.

Distribution: s OR, CA, NV, s ID, s UT, AZ, s NM; south to n MEX.

Notes: Distinguished by being a prostrate to ascending annual, often hugging the ground; the foliage with dense, soft, spreading hairs, making plants feel soft to the touch and sometimes appearing silver-gray-green; and the small, yellow to orange pea flowers.

Ethnobotany: Infusion of plant taken and used as a wash by women in labor by Karok (CA).

Etymology: Acmispon comes from the Greek acme for point or hook, while humistratus means low laying.

Synonyms: Lotus humistratus, Hosackia brachycarpa

Editor: SBuckley 2010, FSCoburn 2015

Plant: Annual forb to 20 cm; stems sometimes prostrate

Leaves: leaves alternate, compound, pubescent; leaflets lance-ovate, <1 cm long

INFLORESCENCE: umbel, axillary, 1-flowered, ± sessile

Flowers: flowers orange, axillary, calyx 3-6 mm, lobes 1-2 X tube; corolla 5-9 mm, wings ± = keel; stamens 10, 9 filaments fused, 1 free

Fruit: legume, dehiscent, ascending, 6-12 mm, generally 3-4 mm wide, oblong; Seeds few, often ± reniform, generally hard, smooth

Misc: Grassland, oak and pine woodland, desert flats and mtns, roadsides; < 1700 m.; Mar-Jun

References: Jepson Manual 1993