Lotus corniculatus var. corniculatus

Native to northern and eastern Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Indian subcontinent. Introduced and naturalized in North America.

Invasive species in Minnesota.

Moist. Meadows, wet low places, roadsides, lawns, and disturbed sites. Full sun.

June to August

Bright yellow, becoming orange marked with brick red

6″ to 24″

This plant is a perennial rising from a taproot.

The stems either curve upwards from the base or lay flat, growing along the surface of the ground with their tips turned upwards. They are branched, hairless or sparsely hairy and up to 1½″ long. They occasionally root at the nodes.

The leaves are alternate, clover-like, and mostly stalkless. They are divided into 5 equally sized and shaped, ¼″ to ¾″ long leaflets. The leaflets are untoothed, stalkless, and somewhat hairy. The two lower leaflets are separated from the upper 3 crowded leaflets, appearing at the point where the leaf stalk joins the stem.

The inflorescence is a rounded, head-like cluster of flowers arising from more or less a single point. The flowers are stalked, with all of the stalks about the same length, forming a convex cluster (umbel). The clusters have 4 to 8 flowers each and rise from the upper leaf axils.

The individual flowers are ⅓″ to ½″ long and bright yellow, tinged increasingly with red as they age, eventually becoming orange marked with brick red. It has 5 petals organized into the banner, wings, and keel that are typical of plants in the Pea family. The sepals are green and are united into a bell-shaped or cone-shaped tube. Their tips are elongated into teeth equal to half the length of the sepal.

The fruit is a smooth, flattened, slender seed pod, ¾″ to 1½″ long, held horizontally from the flower stalk.

The 5-parted leaf and the head-like umbel of bright flowers distinguish this plant from all other members of the Pea family.

American bird’s-foot trefoil (Lotus unifoliolatus var. unifoliolatus), has solitary white flowers.