§1 Plant
Lotus tenuis Waldst. & Kit. ex Willd.
vernacular narrowleaf trefoil — species · Fabaceae
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Forb/herb
- Duration
- Perennial
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Fabaceae Lindl.
- Genus
- Lotus
§2a
Native status, by region
- CAN Canada Introduced
- L48 Lower 48 States Introduced
§2b
County-level range
· 12 counties across 5 states/territories§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- High
- Shade
- High
- Moisture use
- Low
- Salinity
- Medium
- Anaerobic
- Medium
- CaCO₃
- Low
- Hedging
- None
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- -21 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 160 min.
- Precipitation
- 25–50 in/yr
- pH range
- 4.5–7.9
- Root depth
- 12 in min.
- Fertility need
- Medium
- Soil texture
- coarse, medium, fine
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Single Crown
- Growth rate
- Moderate
- Lifespan
- Short
- Mature height
- 1 ft
- Foliage texture
- Fine
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Porous
- Porosity (winter)
- Porous
- Flower colour
- Yellow
- Fruit colour
- Brown
- Fire resistant
- Yes
- N fixation
- Medium
- Toxicity
- None
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Mid Spring
- Seed abundance
- Medium
- Seed begins
- Spring
- Seed ends
- Summer
- Spread rate
- Slow
- Stratify
- No
- Seeds / lb
- 485,000
- Propagation
- seed
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- Routinely Available
- Nursery stock
- No
- Browse palatability
- Medium
- Graze palatability
- High
- Palatable, human
- No
- Protein potential
- High
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Counties, by state
Recorded in 12 counties across 5 states/territories.
Delaware view state ↗ 1 I ▾
Montana view state ↗ 1 I ▾
New Jersey view state ↗ 1 I ▾
New York view state ↗ 7 I ▾
Virginia view state ↗ 2 I ▾
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/LOTE4 ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/7515045 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26
fetched 2026-05-26T08:39:52Z