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Pygmy Lotus

Acmispon haydonii

Also called Rock Bird's Foot Trefoil

Acmispon haydonii is a tiny, bushy desert perennial legume from southern California, found on dry rocky slopes and scrub. It is a wild native rather than a common garden plant, so it needs sharp drainage, full sun and very little water.

Family
Fabaceae (Pea & bean family)
Grows as
Perennial
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly, letting the soil dry out fully between waterings; it is adapted to drought.
Soil
Very well-drained, gritty or rocky mix with low fertility.
Temperature
Tolerates hot desert conditions; protect from hard frost.
How easy
Hard
Native range
California to NW. Mexico
Climate
desert or dry shrubland

About

Acmispon haydonii, synonyms Lotus haydonii and Syrmatium haydonii, is a species of legume native to California It is known by the common names pygmy lotus, rock bird's-foot trefoil and Haydon's lotus.

It is native to the dry mountain slopes and deserts of southern California, mainly the deserts of eastern San Diego County, where it grows in scrub and woodland habitat. It is a small bushy perennial herb spreading with mostly naked, slender stems. The sparse leaves are made up of usually three tiny leaflets and are deciduous. The inflorescence is generally made up of one or two yellow to reddish pealike flowers each under a centimeter long. The fruit is a curved legume pod also under a centimeter long.

Other Acmispon plants

American Bird's Foot Trefoil · Silver Bird's Foot Trefoil · Canyon Bird's Foot Trefoil · Foothill Deervetch · Bentham's Broom · Pine Deer Vetch · Island Broom · Riverbar Bird's Foot Trefoil · Acmispon distichus · California Broom · Chaparral Bird's Foot Trefoil · Rush Broom

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Acmispon haydonii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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