Species
+

Lotus corniculatus L.

Bird's-foot Trefoil, Birdfoot Deervetch, Birdsfoot, Birdsfoot Trefoil

Climate known 67 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Lotus corniculatus is a flowering plant in the pea family Fabaceae. Common names include common bird's-foot trefoil, eggs and bacon, birdsfoot deervetch, and just bird's-foot trefoil. It has a wide distribution and is a favored forage for livestock.

Text from Wikipedia, “Lotus corniculatus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Denmark, Finland, Føroyar +69
Wild records
690 in range· 151 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
911mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 87 mm (CHELSA)
Light
5–35DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 911 mm a year, wettest October at 87 mm, driest April at 56 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -9.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Lotus corniculatus subsp. minor Ehrh.; Lotus corniculatus var. crassifolia Fr.; Lotus corniculatus var. ericetorum H.Post.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (658 mm of 911 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 15.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 911 mm a year, wettest October at 87 mm, driest April at 56 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

911 mm a year at the habitat, 658 mm of it June to January. Wettest month October at 87 mm, driest April at 56 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 682 mm to 1451 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -9.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -9.1 °C, the absolute minimum -18.0 °C, about 64 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 28.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.2 °C in January (across the envelope cells -7.0 °C to 3.3 °C), warmest day 22.0 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -9.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 5 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul; mean night from 0 °C in Jan to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 911 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 585 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -18.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 28.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°frost28.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-18.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 5–35RH 60–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 585 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C5 / 1–86 / 3–89 / 6–1213 / 10–1517 / 14–2020 / 16–2322 / 19–2622 / 18–2518 / 16–2114 / 12–169 / 6–116 / 2–8
Night °C0 / -7–30 / -6–32 / -2–45 / 1–69 / 6–1012 / 10–1414 / 12–1614 / 12–1611 / 8–138 / 5–104 / -1–71 / -6–4
Rain mm76 / 37–10159 / 36–8968 / 47–10856 / 43–10370 / 56–13075 / 59–14883 / 52–15683 / 60–15786 / 61–13287 / 62–12885 / 56–12383 / 51–119
DLI6 / 5–1111 / 9–1718 / 16–2528 / 26–3234 / 32–3635 / 33–3934 / 32–3929 / 27–3420 / 18–2513 / 11–177 / 5–115 / 3–9
RH %66 / 61–6864 / 60–6662 / 58–6460 / 57–6260 / 57–6260 / 58–6360 / 57–6461 / 57–6463 / 60–6464 / 62–6666 / 63–6867 / 62–69

Each figure is the median across the 585 grid cells holding the 686 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 755:3727 (52.225, 6.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -18.0 °C, 1st-percentile night -9.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 585 distinct grid cells holding the 686 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 755:3727 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 52.00_6.250, lapse-corrected -7 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 11 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeDenmark, Finland, Føroyar, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Azores, Canary Is., Madeira, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Krasnoyarsk, West Siberia, Kazakhstan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Turkey, Gulf States, Yemen, East Himalaya, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Myanmar· introduced: Iceland, Cape Provinces, Northern Provinces, St.Helena, Buryatiya, Khabarovsk, Primorye, Turkmenistan, Oman, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, New Zealand South, Labrador, Newfoundland, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Tennessee, Mexico Northwest, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil South, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Chile South, Uruguay, Amsterdam-St.Paul Is., Falkland Is., South Georgia, Tristan da Cunha
Kew's description“perennial or annual” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker51.007, 4.96 · in the densest population, 460 records (67% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 690 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 151 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 747 km away. 67 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 4 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 690 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Lotus corniculatusLotus corniculatusLotus corniculatusLotus corniculatusLotus corniculatusLotus corniculatusLotus corniculatusLotus corniculatus

Photographs: (c) Tom Scavo, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (6).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Lotus corniculatus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Determination of extractable and bound condensed tannin concentrations in forage plants, protein concentrate meals and cereal grains
Thomas H Terrill, Angela Rowan, G. B. Douglas, T. N. Barry (1992) · Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture
The implications of condensed tannins on the nutritive value of temperate forages fed to ruminants
T. N. Barry, Warren C. McNabb (1999) · British Journal Of Nutrition
Nodulating strains of Rhizobium loti arise through chromosomal symbiotic gene transfer in the environment.
John T. Sullivan, Heather N. Patrick, W. L. Lowther, David B. Scott (1995) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
POLLINATION SUCCESS IN A DECEPTIVE ORCHID IS ENHANCED BY CO-OCCURRING REWARDING MAGNET PLANTS
Steven D. Johnson, Craig I. Peter, L. Anders Nilsson, Jon Ågren (2003) · Ecology
The effect of condensed tannins on the site of digestion of amino acids and other nutrients in sheep fed onLotus corniculatusL
G. C. Waghorn, M. J. Ulyatt, A. John, Marilyn Fisher (1987) · British Journal Of Nutrition
Binary Legume–Grass Mixtures Improve Forage Yield, Quality, and Seasonal Distribution
Byron B. Sleugh, Kenneth J. Moore, J. Ronald George, Edward Charles Brummer (2000) · Agronomy Journal
Beyond gradual warming: extreme weather events alter flower phenology of European grassland and heath species
Anke Jentsch, Jüergen Kreyling, JEGOR BOETTCHER‐TRESCHKOW, Carl Beierkuhnlein (2008) · Global Change Biology
Regulators and Regulation of Legume Root Nodule Development
Jens Stougaard (2000) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Presence and identity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi influence competitive interactions between plant species
Tanja R. Scheublin, Richard S. P. van Logtestijn, Marcel G. A. van der Heijden (2007) · Journal of Ecology
Divergent composition but similar function of soil food webs of individual plants: plant species and community effects
Т. Martijn Bezemer, Michelle T. Fountain, J. M. Barea, Søren Christensen (2010) · Ecology
LOTUS CORNICULATUS REGULATES OFFSPRING QUALITY THROUGH SELECTIVE FRUIT ABORTION
Andrew G. Stephenson, James A. Winsor (1986) · Evolution

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Lotus 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 15 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.