Subshrubs (often flowering 1st year, appearing annual), bushy or wiry and prostrate, some­times robust, brownish, 0.8–4 dm, not fleshy, strigillose to glabrate; from woody cau­dices. Stems 1–20+, prostrate to ascending, branched, ± woody, wiry or stout, often remotely leafy. Leaves irregularly subpalmate; stipules glandlike; sessile or subsessile to short-petiolate; rachis 0–9 mm, sometimes flattened; leaflets 3–5, blades obovate to oblanceolate, apex obtuse to acute, or mucronulate, surfaces ± strigil­lose. Peduncles ascending, slender, sometimes second­arily branched, 1–25 mm, usually shorter, sometimes longer, than leaves; bract absent or (when pedunculate) unifoliolate, distal. Inflorescences (1 or)2–8-flowered. Flowers 6–8 mm; calyx 3–5 mm, tube strigillose, lobes triangular to deltate; corolla yellow, tinged red, fading orange, claws longer than calyx tube, banner implicate-ascending, wings shorter than keel (and other petals); style gradually or abruptly upcurved, glabrous. Legumes persistent, moderately to well exserted, ascending to divergent, tawny to brown, strongly arched, curved to 90°, sometimes nearly straight, turgid, not constricted, not septate, linear-oblong, 6–8 × 1–2 mm, leathery, apex beak recurved 80–360° or irregularly contorted, nearly as long as body, indehiscent, transversely ridged, margins keeled, rugose, strigillose or glabrous. Seeds 1 or 2, olive to reddish brown, mottled, elongate, curved, smooth.

Distribution

California.

Discussion

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Acmispon junceus var. biolettii, Acmispon junceus var. junceus

Key

1	Stems usually stout, prostrate to ascending; peduncles 1–5 mm; legumes moderately exserted.	Acmispon junceus var. junceus
1	Stems often wiry, usually prostrate; peduncles (3–)8–25 mm; legumes well exserted.	Acmispon junceus var. biolettii