Herbs perennial, suffrutescent, 10–120 cm, glabrate to sparsely pilose; rhizomatous. Stems erect or ascending, hollow, suc­culent. Leaves 10–34 mm; rachis 3–10 mm; leaflet blades ovate-elliptic to elliptic, 8–25 × 3–15 mm, length 1.4–2.4 times width, apex obtuse, often mucronate. Peduncles ascending to declined, 0.7–10(–15) cm. Inflorescences (4 or)5–15-flowered; bracts (1–)3-foliolate. Flowers 10–14(–20) mm; calyx 4.5–8 mm, lobes spreading or recurved in bud, triangular, (1.5–)2.2–3.5 mm, shorter, ± equaling to slightly longer than tube, tube glabrate to pilose; petals yellow, often mottled with red, darkening, 8–13(–18) mm, wings equaling keel. Legumes brown, cylindric, (10–)15–35 × 1.5–2.5 mm, not septate. Seeds 15–35, yellowish, olive green, or yellowish brown, not or sometimes mottled, globose to round-oblong, 0.8–1.4 mm, smooth. 2n = 12.

Phenology: Flowering late spring–summer.
Habitat: Wet fields, roadsides, ditches, coastal saline flats.
Elevation: 0–500 m.

Distribution

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Introduced; B.C., Man., N.B., N.S., Ont., Que., Calif., Fla., Idaho, Ill., Oreg., Wash., Europe, w Asia, n Africa, introduced also in South America, e Asia, elsewhere in Africa, Pacific Islands (Hawaii, New Zealand), Australia.

Discussion

The name Lotus pedunculatus Cavanilles has been misapplied to specimens of L. uliginosus in North America.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.