Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Lotus angustissimus

Flowers and leaves. Photographer Michael Kest, France

Flowering stems. Photographer Michael Kest, France

Leaves and flowers. Photographer Zoya Akulova, California, USA

Common name

Slender birds-foot trefoil

Family

Fabaceae 

Where found

Damp sandy soils, mainly in the Sydney region.

Notes

Introduced annual or perennial herb to 0.5 m high, or sprawling. Stems more or less hairy. Leaves alternating up the stems, compound, with 5 leaflets, each 0.3–1.6 cm long, 1–5 mm wide, the lower 2 leaflets only slightly smaller than the upper ones, surfaces hairy; tips with a small abrupt point.  Flowers 4–8 mm long, pea shaped, with 5 petals, 2 joined together to form the keel, yellow, in clusters mostly of 1-4 flowers. Flowers Nov.–Jan.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Lotus~angustissimus (accessed 24 January, 2021)