''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 wid ...

subshrub 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, so ...

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 m ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, 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 Guatema ...

. It is commonly found in many areas including chaparral, 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, ...

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, and in ...

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 Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

consisting of two to seven flowers in the upper

leaf 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, ste ...

axils. 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 particu ...

consists of a curved legume with two seeds.

Ecology

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

larvae, and deer. Among the larvae are the Acmon blue, Afranius duskywing, Avalon scrub hairstreak, bramble hairstreak, funereal duskywing, and northern cloudywing. Common plant associates in chaparral, 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 gro ...

and

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

. 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 limited ...

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 process, industrial, thermal and metalworking, metalworking processes used to alter the physical property, physical, and sometimes chemical property, chemical, properties of a material. ...

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 else ...

References

External links

USDA: ''Lotus scoparius''

Jepson Flora Project: ''Lotus scoparius''

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q15490404, from2=Q3024330

glaber Glaber, a Latin word meaning ''bald'', may refer to : * Arduin Glaber (died c. 977), the Count of Auriate from c. 935 and Margrave of Turin from c. 950 * Gaius Claudius Glaber, a Roman praetor in 73 BC. that failed to hem in Spartacus and his fell ...

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