PRAIRIE TREFOIL
File Size: 66 KB
 
Lotus unifoliolatus   (Hook. ) Benth.  var. unifoliolatus 
[=Lotus purshianus  (Benth. ) F.E. Clements & E.G. Clements]
Stafford County, Kansas
Annual
Height: 8-32 inches
Family: Fabaceae - Bean Family
Flowering Period:   June, July, August
Also Called: American bird's-foot trefoil, pursh's deer-vetch.
Stems: Erect, much branched, silky pubescent when young, glabrous when older.
Leaves: Alternate, nearly sessile, 3-foliolate; leaflets lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 2/5 to 1 inch long, silky-pubescent; tips pointed.
Inflorescences: 1-2 flowers on stalks in upper leaf axils; subtended by single leaf-like bract.
Flowers: Calyx tubular-bell-shaped, soft hairy; teeth narrowly lanceolate, unequal; corolla papilionaceous, 1/5 to 1/3 inch long, pink with darker veins, white with pink veins, or rarely cream-colored; banner egg-shaped, 1/4 to 1/3 inch long; wings and keel less than 1/4 inch long; keel tip yellowish; stamens 10, 9 united, 1 free.
Fruits: Pod, spreading or bent downward, straight, narrowly oblong, .8 to 1.6 inches long, circular in cross-section, glabrous; seeds many, tiny, olive to light brown, often mottled, somewhat shiny.
Habitat: Prairie plains, rocky hillsides, stream valleys, roadsides, dunes waste areas; open, sandy soils.
Distribution: Central 1/3 and southeast corner.
Forage Value: Livestock will eat the immature plant.
Uses: Quail consume the seeds.

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