Acmispon prostratus

Herbs, usually annual, sometimes ± perennial, cespitose, prostrate, greenish gray (young growth cinereous), 1–10 dm, not fleshy, strigose to glabrate; taprooted. Stems 1–10+, procumbent or diffuse, branched basally, herbaceous, slender, remotely leafy. Leaves irregularly pinnate or palmate; stipules glandlike; subsessile; rachis 3–9 mm, flattened; leaflets 4, 2 on one side and 2 terminal, blades obovate to oblanceolate, apex acute to obtuse, surfaces appressed-hairy. Peduncles ascending, slender, 8–30 mm, longer than leaves; bract absent or 1(–3)-foliolate, usually distal. Inflorescences 3–8-flowered. Flowers 5–7 mm; calyx 2–3 mm, tube strigose, lobes triangular, shorter than tube; corolla yellow, often red on banner and wing tips, reddening, claws longer than calyx tube, banner implicate-ascending to 45°, wings equaling or longer than keel; style curved, glabrous. Legumes persistent, strongly exserted, widely spreading or reflexed, greenish to tawny, arched, turgid, constricted, not septate, linear-oblong, 8–15 × 1 mm, leathery, apex tapering, shortly hook-beaked, indehiscent, smooth, margins often sinuate, glabrous. Seeds 2, greenish brown, mottled, elongate-oblong, smooth.

Phenology: Flowering (late winter–)spring(–summer).
Habitat: Sandy and gravelly areas near coast, beaches, dunes, coastal scrub, urban, weedy areas.
Elevation: 0–30 m.

Calif., Mexico (Baja California).

Discussion

Acmispon prostratus is known in the flora area only from the southern South Coast in San Diego County.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa