''Acmispon glaber'' (previously ''Lotus scoparius'') (common deerweed, deer weed, deervetch, California broom or western bird's-foot trefoil) is a

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

subshrub A subshrub ( Latin ''suffrutex'') or dwarf shrub is a short shrub, and is a woody plant. Prostrate shrub is a related term. "Subshrub" is often used interchangeably with "bush".Jackson, Benjamin, Daydon; A Glossary of Botanic Terms with their ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Fabaceae (pea family). The plant is a

pioneer species Pioneer species are hardy species that are the first to colonize barren environments or previously biodiverse steady-state ecosystems that have been disrupted, such as by wildfire. Pioneer flora Some lichens grow on rocks without soil, ...

found in dry areas of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States. It is the list of U.S. states and territories by area, 6th largest and the list of U.S. states and territories by population, 14 ...

, and

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

. It is commonly found in many areas including

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterrane ...

, coastal sand and roadsides at elevations below 1500 m.

Description

The ''Acmispon glaber'' stems are green, erect, somewhat branched, with small,

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, a ...

pinnate Pinnation (also called pennation) is the arrangement of feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis. Pinnation occurs in biological morphology, in crystals, such as some forms of ice or metal crystals, an ...

leaves consisting of three to six leaflets. The plant blooms from about March to August and has flowers that are bilateral, small (7–11 mm), yellow, and clustered together in an

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed ...

consisting of two to seven flowers in the upper

leaf A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

axil A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, ...

s. The flowers become reddish with age. The

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in partic ...

consists of a curved legume with two

seeds A seed is an Plant embryogenesis, embryonic plant enclosed in a testa (botany), protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, includ ...

Ecology

''Acmispon glaber'' is a food consumed by numerous wildlife, providing intake for

hummingbird Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the biological family Trochilidae. With about 361 species and 113 genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but the vast majority of the species are found in the tropics ar ...

s, bees,

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises ...

larvae, and deer. Among the larvae are the

Acmon blue ''Icaricia acmon'', the Acmon blue, is a North American butterfly. It ranges mainly in California but can be seen north to Oregon and south through Baja California. Wingspan is 17-30 mm. The tops of the wings are blue with dark edges in males a ...

Afranius duskywing ''Erynnis afranius'', the afranius duskywing or bald duskywing, is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. It is found from northern Mexico through the central United States to southern Canada in the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manito ...

, Avalon scrub hairstreak, bramble hairstreak,

funereal duskywing ''Erynnis funeralis'', the funereal duskywing, is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. It is found from southern California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, south to Argentina and Chile. Strays can be found north up to northern Illinois, north ...

, and

northern cloudywing ''Thorybes pylades'', the northern cloudywing, is a butterfly species of the family Hesperiidae. Description The wingspan of ''T. pylades'' is between 32 and 47 mm. Both males and females have completely dark brown wings except for the smal ...

. Common plant associates in

, especially in the transition between coastal chaparral and

coastal sage scrub Coastal sage scrub, also known as coastal scrub, CSS, or soft chaparral, is a low scrubland plant community of the California coastal sage and chaparral subecoregion, found in coastal California and northwestern coastal Baja California. It is ...

, include

California sagebrush ''Artemisia californica'', also known as California sagebrush, is a species of western North American shrub in the sunflower family. Description ''Artemisia californica'' branches from the base and grows out from there, becoming rounded; it gr ...

and

toyon ''Heteromeles arbutifolia'' (; more commonly by Californian botanists), commonly known as toyon, is a common Perennial plant, perennial shrub native to extreme southwest Oregon, California, and the Baja California Peninsula. It is the sole speci ...

. Landowners seeking to provide a home for reintroducing the

Palos Verdes blue The Palos Verdes blue (''Glaucopsyche lygdamus palosverdesensis'') is a small endangered butterfly native to the Palos Verdes Peninsula in southwest Los Angeles County, California, United States. As its distribution has been proven to be limite ...

butterfly have been required to have sufficient ''Acmispon glaber'' plants to provide the butterflies with shelter. Adult ''Acmispon glaber'' plants are usually killed by fire due to their thin epidermis and broom-like foliage that burns easily, but the seeds of ''Acmispon glaber'' are scarified by fire and readily germinate in the first rainy season after a fire. For 2 to 3 years after a fire in a sage scrub habitat, the flora consists primarily of herbaceous annuals and short-lived herbaceous perennials, but after the first 2–3 years, ''Acmispon glaber'' generally becomes dominant, being gradually replaced by long-lived shrubs after 5–10 years post-fire. Due to their seeds' fire adaptation, ''Acmispon glaber'' benefits from heat scarification in cultivation.

Heat treatment Heat treating (or heat treatment) is a group of industrial, thermal and metalworking processes used to alter the physical, and sometimes chemical, properties of a material. The most common application is metallurgical. Heat treatments are al ...

significantly increases germination rate. *''Acmispon glaber'' var. ''brevialatus '' is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

References

External links

USDA: ''Lotus scoparius''

Jepson Flora Project: ''Lotus scoparius''

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q15490404, from2=Q3024330 glaber Flora of Arizona Flora of California Flora of Northwestern Mexico Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the Peninsular Ranges Natural history of the California Coast Ranges Natural history of the San Francisco Bay Area Natural history of the Santa Monica Mountains Natural history of the Transverse Ranges Butterfly food plants Flora without expected TNC conservation status