''Acmispon micranthus'' is a species of

legume A legume () is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seed of such a plant. When used as a dry grain, the seed is also called a pulse. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, for livestock f ...

native to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and northwestern

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 Guatema ...

. It is known by the common name San Diego bird's-foot trefoil. It is found in the coastal mountain ranges of

and

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

, where it grows in various types of scrub and canyon habitat. It is an annual herb taking a spreading or upright form. It is lined with leaves each made up of oval leaflets each about a centimeter long. The

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 o ...

is a small bunch of red and yellow flowers. Each flower is in a tubular calyx of

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

s and is only a few millimeters long. The fruit is a narrow, bent

pod up to 1.5 centimeters long, including the hooked beak at the tip.

References

Jepson Manual TreatmentUSDA Plants Profile

External links

Photo gallery

micranthus ''Micranthus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Iridaceae. The entire genus is endemic to Cape Province in South Africa. The genus name is derived from the Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, ...

Flora of California Flora of Northwestern Mexico Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Loteae-stub