|
BIRD'S-FOOT TREFOIL
Lotus corniculatus
Family LEGUMINOSAE
From June to October commons, pastures and downs are bright with the flowers of Bird'sfoot Trefoil. lt is known in some districts as Lady's Slipper.
From a short, woody, perennial rootstock, several trailing branches originate, which are themselves much branched. The leaves are not trefoils, as the name would lead one to suppose, for the apparent stipules at the base of the leaf-stalk are, in this genus, leaflets.
The flowers, which are in spreading heads of from three to ten flowers, are of bright yellow, tinted with red.
They are succeeded by little cylindrical pods about one inch in length, which, when three or four are in a cluster, present the appearance of a bird's claw.
The seeds are globular, separated by a pithy substance, which nearly fills the pod. The plant is a valued ingredient in the formation of pastures and meadows.
|
It has a perennial, woody rootstock clothed in silky hairs, from which rise three or four ladys slipper trefoil leaves, and a runner or two starting off to produee young plants. The hairy leaflets are oblong with edges eut into coarse teeth, and showing strongly marked lines on ladys slipper the surface. The white fiowers are borne on the radical, erect fiower-stem, and are about three-quarters of an inch across, the lobes of the calyx showing between the ladys slipper five petais. There is an epicalyx of five bracteoles, which are slightly smaller than the calyx lobes. There are ten stamens and numerous pistils.
The calyx has four or five lobes; the petals are four or five, the capsules vary from five to nine, curiously twisted, and surrounded by slipper ladys a large number of stamens. In spite of their delicate fragrance, the flowers produce no nectar but attracted by their sweet odour, insects visit them in great numbers, and from slipper ladys the closeness of the flowers cannot help fertilizing them. The flowering period extends from June to August. In hedges, thickets and waste places, the Bramble abounds everywhere. It has a ladys slipper perennial rootstock from which spring the thick stems.
|
brought by Plants To Buy Online |
|
