Seaside Deervetch
Lotus salsuginosus
Photographed near Stewart Mountain, Maricopa Co., Arizona, USA. March 2010.
ANNUAL: In the Sonoran Desert this plant is normally low-growing and
often rather small annual of spring. With very good moisture supply plants can
reach 60 cm across as the plant
creeps along soil.
LEAVES: Compound, rather fleshy leaves usu. with few hairs and 3 to 7
leaflets. The sparse hairs are stiff and lay flat against the foliage -
magnifier needed to see.
FLOWERS: Small, about 3 mm,
bright yellow pea-flowers bloom around March, but only in springs that follow
good winter rainfall.
FRUIT: Small bean pods with a short hooked appendage at tip.
RANGE: Fairly common in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. Ranges west into
California where a more robust variety of this species grows near the Pacific coast.
UNARMED. No spines.