Lotus hamatus Greene   =Hosackia micrantha                           Fabaceae  (Pea Family)                               Native                                  San Diego Lotus                                    San Diego Hosackia

                                        April Photo

Plant Characteristics: Annual, prostrate with many branches arising from the crown of the root; young stems, leaves and calyces appressed-pubescent; lfts. 4-6, oblanceolate, often mucronate and cuneate; umbels sessile or nearly so, bractless; fls. 3-4.5 mm. long, the calyx half as long; calyx teeth subulate, shorter than the tube; banner shorter than the keel; legumes several times as long as the calyx, slender, arcuate, constricted between the two seeds, as pod leaves calyx it makes a 90 degree bend; wall of the fruit with wavy v-shaped markings, beak curled, strigose.

Habitat:  Dry slopes below 5000 ft.; Coastal Sage Scrub, Chaparral; n. L. Calif. to San Luis Obispo Co.  March-June.

Name:  Greek, lotos, a sweet, juicy-fruited shrub; also the name of several other plants.  Hamatus, hooked.  (Jaeger 115,144).  The species name refers to the hooked legumes.

General:  Uncommon in the study area having only been found on the 23rd St. bluffs and on the bench northerly of and above 23rd St.. (my comment).      In the southwestern United States, the larvae of the Marine Blue butterfly, Leptotes marina, feed on  legumes such as lotus, alfalfa and sweet pea in the wild; often on leadwort,  the Plumbago family, in urban areas.   (No author, sbnature, A Journal of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.  Spring 2004/Vol. 2 No. 1, 6-8).        Perhaps 150 species of all continents; but mostly of Northern Hemisphere.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 444).

Text Ref:  Jepson 555; Hickman, Ed. 619; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 447.

Photo Ref:  April-May 86 # 12,13.

Identity: by R. De Ruff, confirmed by F. Roberts.

First Found:  April 1986.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 104

Have plant specimen.

Last edit 10/18/04.