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Montana Field Guide

Montana Field Guides

Garden Bird's-foot-trefoil - Lotus corniculatus
Other Names:  Eggs and Bacon, Bird's-foot Deervetch, Lotus tenuis

Non-native Species

Global Rank: GNR
State Rank: SNA
C-value: 1


Agency Status
USFWS:
USFS:
BLM:


 

External Links






 
General Description
Taprooted perennial with a branched crown. Stems simple or branched, ascending to prostrate, 15–60 cm. Herbage glabrous to sparsely strigose. Leaves sessile, with 5 oblanceolate leaflets, 5–15 mm long. Inflorescence a long-pedunculate few-flowered umbel subtended by a trifoliolate bract. Flowers yellow, sometimes red-tinged; calyx tube 2–3 mm long with linear sepals 1–3 mm long; banner 6–10 mm long; keel 8–12 mm long. Legume 2–4 cm long (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Species Range
Montana Range Range Descriptions

Non-native
 


Range Comments
Introduced for forage and to stabilize road banks throughout much of North America; native to Eurasia (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Observations in Montana Natural Heritage Program Database
Number of Observations: 177

(Click on the following maps and charts to see full sized version) Map Help and Descriptions
Relative Density

Recency

 

(Observations spanning multiple months or years are excluded from time charts)



Habitat

Ecology
POLLINATORS
The following animal species have been reported as pollinators of this plant species or its genus where their geographic ranges overlap: Bombus vagans, Bombus fervidus, Bombus occidentalis, Bombus pensylvanicus, and Bombus griseocollis (Thorp et al. 1983, Colla and Dumesh 2010, Colla et al. 2011).

Management

References
  • Literature Cited AboveLegend:   View Online Publication
    • Colla, S., L. Richardson, and P. Williams. 2011. Bumble bees of the eastern United States. Washington, DC: USDA Forest Service, Pollinator Partnership. 103 p.
    • Colla, S.R. and S. Dumesh. 2010. The bumble bees of southern Ontario: notes on natural history and distribution. Journal of the Entomological Society of Ontario 141:39-68.
    • Lesica, P., M.T. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. Fort Worth, TX: BRIT Press. viii + 771 p.
    • Thorp, R.W., D.S. Horning, and L.L. Dunning. 1983. Bumble bees and cuckoo bumble bees of California (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Bulletin of the California Insect Survey 23:1-79.
  • Additional ReferencesLegend:   View Online Publication
    Do you know of a citation we're missing?
    • Jensen, P.D. 2001. The foraging and nesting behavior of four solitary-nesting bee species (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) in the Gallatin Valley, Montana. M.Sc. Thesis. Bozeman, Montana: Montana State University. 76 p.
    • Lesica, P., M.T. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2022. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants, Second Edition. Fort Worth, TX: BRIT Press. viii + 779 p.
    • Seipel, T.F. 2006. Plant species diversity in the sagebrush steppe of Montana. M.Sc. Thesis. Bozeman, MT: Montana State University. 87 p.
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Citation for data on this website:
Garden Bird's-foot-trefoil — Lotus corniculatus.  Montana Field Guide.  .  Retrieved on , from