Wiggins 1964, Kearney and Peebles 1969

Duration: Annual Nativity: Native Lifeform: Forb/Herb General: Prostrate or decumbent annual with several spreading branches 5-35 cm long, sparsely strigose but only youngest parts cinereous; stems essentially glabrate or nearly so. Leaves: Alternate, pinnately compound, fleshy, leaflets 4-9, oblanceolate to obovate, 3-10 mm long, curving in a v-shape (involute), usually strigose, at least along the margins, sometimes purplish, midstem (axis) usually flattened, stipules gland-like. Flowers: Yellow to reddish-orange, with banner, wing, and keel petals (papilionaceous), 3-5.5 mm long, the wings larger than the keel, stamens 10, filaments with 9 fused, 1 free, stigmas puberulent, flowers axillary, solitary, or in groups of 1-2 on bracted peduncles. Fruits: Pods purplish, narrow, cylindrical (terete), 1-3.5 cm long, generally curved only at or near the tip. Seeds several, kidney-shaped (reniform), glabrous. Ecology: Found on sandy or gravelly soil below 3,000 ft (914 m); flowers February-May. Distribution: Arizona, California, Nevada; Mexico. Notes: The thickish, slightly succulent leaves are one feature to pay attention to. Ethnobotany: Used for greens. Etymology: Lotus is from the Greek and is originally applied to a fruit said to make those who tasted it forget their homes, strigosus means covered in straight, flat-lying hairs. Synonyms: Hosackia tomentella, Lotus intricatus, Linnaeus tomentellus, Lotus strigosus var. tomentellus, Lotus tomentellus, Lotus strigosus Editor: SBuckley, 2010