Crotalaria lotifolia L.

• Authority

  Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.

• Family

  Fabaceae

• Scientific Name

  Crotalaria lotifolia L.

• Description

  Species Description - Frequent in the dry southern parts of Porto Rico, and occasional in the eastern districts, at lower elevations, found also on Vieques Island, growing in thickets, and on hillsides, this slender shrub, with small, yellow, pea-like flowers in axillary clusters is attractive when in bloom. We have not observed it, in Porto Rico , at elevations higher than about 150 meters. The distribution of this species is through the Greater Antilles, the Virgin islands and the Bahama archipelego. No popular Spanish name is recorded. We refer to our description of Crotalaria retusa for an account of the genus Crotalaria. Crotalaria lotifolia (from resemblance of the leaves to those of some species of Lotus, of the same family) is usually branched, and may reach 2 meters in height, but seldom more than 1 meter; it is sometimes vine-like, however, and about 3 meters long, the branches very slender, appressed-hairy. The slender leaf-stalks are hairy, from 2 to 6 centimeters long; the 3, thin, blunt, short-stalked leaflets are from 1 to 4 centimeters long , sometimes silky-hairy on the under side, usually smooth on the upper; the flowers are few together in short-stalked clusters, about as long as the leaves, or shorter; the lance-shaped, pointed calyx-segments are from 5 to 7 millimeters long; the yellow petals are about twice as long as the calyx, the standard reddish-veined. The narrowly oblong pod is finely ap pressed-hairy, beaked, from 2 to 3 centimeters long, about 6 millimeters thick.

• Discussion

  Shrubby Rattle-box Pea Family Crotalaria lotifolia Linnaeus , Species Plantarum 715.1753.