Lotus corniculatus

      
Bird's Foot Trefoil

G. F. Ledingham Herbarium
University of Regina

Note that the key to the genera in Budd's Flora requires:
     - leaves palmately divided; NOT pinnately divided
     - flowers usually solitary in the leaf axils; NOT in spikes, NOT in racemes
     - flowers about 4 mm long; NOT 10-20 mm long
for members of the Lotus genus.  However, neither of these is true for L. corniculatus.  In this species the leaves are pinnate, the flowers are in an umbellate head, and each flower can be more than 10 mm long.

bullet

Corniculatus:  Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this species.  
bullet

plants perennial; NOT annual

bullet

stems solid; NOT hollow

bullet

leaflets 5

bullet

leaflets pinnately arranged (the lower pair basal and resembling stipules)

bullet

leaflets 5-15 mm long; NOT 10-25 mm long

bullet

flowers in umbellate heads; NOT solitary in upper leaf axils

bullet

flowers yellow

bullet

calyx lobes incurved in bud; NOT recurved in bud

bullet

calyx lobes 1.5 -2.0 mm long; NOT 2-4 mm long

 
bullet

Lotus: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus.
bullet

herbs; NOT shrubs

bullet

plants NOT cushion plants

bullet

plants NOT climbing

bullet

stems NOT twining on vegetation

bullet

leaves NOT glandular-dotted

bullet

leaflets entire; NOT [clearly toothed]

bullet

terminal leaflet normal; NOT replaced by a tendril

bullet

flowers all alike; NOT [upper flowers with petals, the lower ones apetalous]

bullet

flowers about 4 mm long; NOT 10-20 mm long

bullet

keel NOT truncate

bullet

fruit a legume; NOT a loment

 

bullet

Leguminosae: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora leading to this family.
bullet

herbs; NOT shrubs, NOT trees

bullet

plants terrestrial or semiaquatic; NOT aquatic

bullet

plants NOT with colored milky juice

bullet

plants with more than one normal leaf

bullet

some or all leaves alternate; NOT [opposite, whorled, or basal]

bullet

leaves with stipules

bullet

flowers with two floral rings, and with each petal distinct from the others

bullet

calyx regular

bullet

flowers irregular in shape

bullet

corolla pea-like; NOT [with one petal spurred or sac-like]

bullet

stamens usually separate or partly so; NOT in a column

bullet

fruit a legume; NOT a 3-valved capsule