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Lotus
Also called Bird's Foot Trefoils, Bird's Foot Trefoil, Deervetch, Bird's Foot Trefoils And Deervetches
Lotus is a genus of roughly 70 to 150 legume species, mostly bird's-foot trefoils and deervetches, with yellow pea-shaped flowers and seed pods that resemble a bird's foot. Most are grown as forage, cover crops or ornamentals rather than as houseplants, and they fix nitrogen through root nodules.
Lotus, a latinization of Greek lōtos (λωτός), is a genus of flowering plants that includes most bird's-foot trefoils (also known as bacon-and-eggs) and deervetches. Depending on the taxonomic authority, roughly between 70 and 150 species are accepted, all legumes; American species formerly placed in the genus have been transferred to other genera. Lotus species are found in the Eastern Hemisphere and adapted to a wide range of habitats.
The aquatic plant commonly known as the Indian or sacred lotus is Nelumbo nucifera, a species not closely related to Lotus.
The genus contains many dozens of species distributed in the Eastern Hemisphere, including Africa, Europe, western, southern, and eastern Asia, and Australia and New Guinea. They are adapted to a wide range of habitats, from coastal environments to high elevations.
Several species are cultivated for forage, including L. corniculatus, L. glaber, and L. pedunculatus. They can produce toxic cyanogenic glycosides which can be potentially toxic to livestock, but also produce tannins, which are a beneficial anti-bloating compound.
Coralgem · Common Bird's-foot-trefoil · Canary Clover · Greater Bird's-foot-trefoil · Hairy bird's-foot trefoil · Winged Pea
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Lotus (genus) 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.
