Plant Name
Scientific Name: Lotus rigidus
Synonym: Hosackia rigida
Common Names: Shrubby Deervetch, Wiry Lotus, Broom Bird's-foot Trefoil, Desert Rockpea
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Perennial
Growth Habit: Subshrub, Herb/Forb
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert, Upland
Flower Color: Yellow, Orange
Flowering Season: Spring
Height: To 3 feet (91 cm) tall
Description: The flowers are in clusters of 1 to 3. The individual flowers have hairy, typically reddish sepals and are pealike, 1 inch (2.5 cm) long, and yellow fading to red-tinged yellow or orange with a red-backed banner petal. The flowers are followed by slender, mostly hairless, straight, green to reddish bean pods with a pointed, up-slanted tip. The leaves are green, at widely spaced intervals along the stems, covered lightly with flat-lying hair, and pinnate to palmate with 3 to 5 oblanceolate to egg-shaped leaflets. The numerous stems are slender, wiry, branched, and ascending. The plants are shrublike.
This species can be recognized by its upright, shrubby form, wiry stems, and widely spaced leaves. The many other Lotus species found here are prostrate, have more closely spaced leaves or flowers on the stems, or are much hairier.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Rosidae
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae – Pea family
Genus: Lotus L. – trefoil
Species: Lotus rigidus (Benth.) Greene – shrubby deervetch
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