LEGUMINOSAE (PULSE FAMILY) 



237 



BIRD'S-FOOT TREFOIL 

 Lotus corniculatus, L. 



Other English names: Bloom-fell, Ground Honeysuckle, Cat's 



Clover, Crow-toes, Sheep-foot. 

 Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 

 Time of bloom: June to September. 

 Seed-time: July to October. 

 Range: Waste places and on ballast in New Brunswick and Nova 



Scotia, about the seaports of Eastern and Middle States. 

 Habitat : Waste places ; in a few instances invading fields. 



An emigrant from Europe, where it is a widely distributed and 

 very troublesome weed, native to Asia. It has a long, deep-boring 

 root which renders it very resistant 

 to drought, and a spreading habit, of 

 growth which enables it to crowd out 

 all better plants growing with it. It 

 is not considered poisonous, and has 

 even been cultivated as a forage 

 plant in some localities in the South, 

 but grazing animals suffer from bloat 

 and indigestion when they eat very 

 much of it. (Fig. 169.) 



Stems many from the same root, 

 slender, hairy, some erect and others 

 prostrate, four inches to two feet long. 

 Leaves sessile or nearly so, pinnately 

 compound, consisting of five small, 

 oblong leaflets, the basal pair appear- 

 ing like large stipules, the other three 

 like a trefoil at the end of the stalk, or rachis. Flowers numerous, 

 in showy, umbellate heads lifted on slender peduncles three to six 

 inches long ; corolla about a half-inch long, bright yellow, or the 

 standard a coppery red. Pods linear, nearly an inch long, each 

 containing several shining, light brown seeds. 



Means of control 



Prevent seed development and starve the roots by close and 

 repeated cuttings from the time of flowering until the end of the 



FIG. 169. Bird's-foot Trefoil 

 (Lotus corniculatus). X 5. 



