WikiBotanicals:Lotus

Lotus (from Lotos, the old Greek name given by  Theophrastus and Dioscorides to some leguminous plants). Bird's-foot Trefoil. Including Pedrosia and Tetragonolobus. A large genus (about 100  species have been described, although not more than fifty  have any claim to specific rank) of greenhouse or hardy  herbs or sub-shrubs, widely dispersed over the temperate  regions of the Northern hemisphere in the Old World,  the mountains of tropical Asia, and extra-tropical South Africa.

Background
Flowers yellow, red, purple, pink, or white,  usually several together in an umbel, on an axillary peduncle. Leaves four or five-foliolate; leaflets entire. But few species are worth growing, and these are of very easy culture in almost any ordinary garden soil. L. jacobœus is a greenhouse sub-shrubby plant, but it is very liable to die off in winter. It can be increased,  during early summer, by cuttings, placed in an airy situation, and kept carefully watered. The species can  also be raised annually from seeds, which are ripened freely in this country. L. gebelia and L. jacobœus would  probably prove hardy in the open air, if planted in a warm, sheltered spot.

Species
L. albidus (whitish). A synonym of L. australis.

L. australis (Southern). flower usually pink, but varying from white to a purple-red. July. length of leaflets narrower than in L. corniculatus, and the stipulary ones dissimilar, but varying from obovate to linear. Stems diffuse, ascending, or erect. Height 2ft. Australia. Greenhouse perennial. (B. M. 1353.) SYN. L. albidus (L. B. C. 1063).

L. corniculatus (small-horned). Common Bird's-foot Trefoil. flower bright yellow, fading to an orange-colour; vexillum striped  with red at the base in front; peduncles very long, each bearing  three, four, five, or ten flowers at the apex in a kind of flat umbel. Summer and autumn. Length leaflets obovate, acute, entire; stipules ovate. Northern hemisphere (Britain). Plant procumbent. A very handsome dwarf herbaceous plant, well suited for growing on a rock work. (Sy. En. B. 368.) The double-flowered form is very desirable.

L. gebelia (Gebel-cher). Flower at first red, but ultimately pale rose, large; heads of long peduncles usually three-flowered. June and July. Lenth leaflets and stipules ovate, rather glaucescent. Stems decumbent. Asia Minor, 1816. Greenhouse perennial.

L. jacobœus (St. Jago). Flower dark purple, almost black, with the vexillum yellowish, corymbose; peduncles longer than the leaves. Summer and autumn. Length leaflets and stipules linear or linear-spathulate, rather pilose and canescent, mucronate. Height 1ft. to 3ft. Cape Verde Islands. Greenhouse perennial. (B. M. 79.)

L. peliorhynchus (pigeon's-beak). Flower loosely crowded on  short shoots towards the ends of the branches; corolla scarlet, 1in. long, with a very narrow-lanceolate standard, sharply recurved, like a hood. May. Length crowded, sessile, having subulate, spreading leaflets (as if fascicled), Height 2ft. Teneriffe, 1884. A singular and ornamental greenhouse shrub. (B. M. 6733.)

L. pinnatus (pinnate). A synonym of Hosackia bicolor.

L. Tetragonolobus (Tetragonolobus). Flower dark purple, solitary or twin; bracts longer than the calyx. June to August. Length leaflets obovate, entire; stipules ovate, h. 6in. to 12in. South Europe. Hardy annual. SYN. Tetragonolobus purpurea. (B. M. 151.)