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Lotus creticus; photograph (c) Duarte Frade, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Duarte Frade, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2022-02-19

Lotus creticus L.

Cretan bird's-foot-trefoil; Cretan trefoil; Creta trefoil

Fabaceae · Corse, France +16

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Lotus creticus, photograph (c) Duarte Frade, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lotus creticus, photograph (c) Duarte Frade, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lotus creticus, photograph (c) Duarte Frade, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lotus creticus, photograph (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lotus creticus, photograph (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lotus creticus, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 55 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
3.6°C
Record low -0.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
615mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
14–49DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes October to February and April, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Lotus creticus is a species of perennial herb of the family Fabaceae found in tropical Africa. It is symbiosis-competent and engages in nitrogen-fixing symbiotic interactions with species of the Ensifer genus[3][3]. It comprises three varieties found in the Mediterranean. There is some controversy as to whether each subgroup could be considered the same species but are classically described as being subgroups. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Lotus creticus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (461 mm of 588 mm) falls in October to February and April, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 14.9 °C against a yearly mean of 18.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to August and October.

Rain

588 mm in the median year at the habitat, 461 mm of it October to February and April. Wettest month December at 108 mm, driest month July at 3 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 313 mm to 758 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 615 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 588 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 49 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 12, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 3.6 °C, the absolute minimum -0.8 °C, 2 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 9.6 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 6.5 °C to 11.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.6 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 3.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 61% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

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

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -50 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Lotus creticus through the yearWarmest month August, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 9.6 °C; 588 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost35.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-0.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 14–49RH 58–61%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 426 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C15 / 12–1615 / 13–1717 / 15–1918 / 16–2121 / 18–2424 / 21–2827 / 23–3028 / 23–3025 / 22–2822 / 19–2618 / 16–2116 / 13–18
Night °C10 / 7–1110 / 7–1211 / 9–1313 / 11–1415 / 14–1719 / 16–2021 / 18–2321 / 18–2420 / 17–2217 / 15–2013 / 11–1611 / 8–13
Rain mm72 / 36–14661 / 33–10648 / 26–6452 / 21–6932 / 6–5210 / 1–273 / 1–105 / 1–2529 / 4–7875 / 30–10193 / 42–123108 / 35–156
DLI17 / 14–1923 / 20–2532 / 29–3339 / 37–4144 / 42–4749 / 46–5048 / 46–5144 / 40–4535 / 31–3825 / 22–2918 / 15–2214 / 12–17
RH %60 / 57–6259 / 57–6259 / 56–6158 / 55–6259 / 56–6360 / 55–6560 / 53–6661 / 55–6660 / 57–6560 / 58–6460 / 56–6260 / 57–63
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 426 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1204 records in those cells; 83 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1052:3423 (37.375, -8.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 3.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 426 distinct grid cells holding 1204 of the 1363 in-range records (83 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1052:3423 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 37.50_-8.750, lapse-corrected -50 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 51 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeCorse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Greece, Italy, Sicilia, Yugoslavia, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Canary Is., East Aegean Is., Palestine, Sinai · introduced: Azores, Victoria · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker37.196, -8.898 · in the densest population, 983 records (66% of those in range)
Doubtfully present inLebanon-Syria · recorded by WCVP as doubtfully present: not part of the range records are tested against
Kew's description“perennial” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1485 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1204 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1363 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 449 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 13 km away. 54 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 122 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1485 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Lotus creticus, photograph 1did not loadLotus creticus, photograph 2did not loadLotus creticus, photograph 3did not loadLotus creticus, photograph 4did not loadLotus creticus, photograph 5did not loadLotus creticus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Duarte Frade, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Cachrys libanotis Cachrys libanotis Apiaceae Photo: CC BY, Duarte FradeAllium subvillosum Allium subvillosum Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedAstragalus boeticus Astragalus boeticus Milk-Vetch Photo: CC BY, Rob FosterLupinus cosentinii Lupinus cosentinii Hairy blue lupin Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloCarduus myriacanthus Carduus myriacanthus Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Santiago Martín-BravoCyperus capitatus Cyperus capitatus Cyperaceae Photo: CC BY, Duarte Frade

Other Lotus 28 in the reference

Lotus alpinus Lotus alpinus Alpine Bird's-Foot Trefoil Photo: CC BY, Katrin SimonLotus angustissimus Lotus angustissimus Slender bird's-foot trefoil Photo: CC BY, Tatyana SovaLotus australis Lotus australis Australian trefoil Photo: CC BY, CorinLotus berthelotii Lotus berthelotii Coralgem Photo: CC BY, pericurric Lotus broussonetii Fabaceae Lotus campylocladus Lotus campylocladus Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, William StephensLotus corniculatus Lotus corniculatus Bird's-foot trefoil Photo: CC BY, Tom ScavoLotus cytisoides Lotus cytisoides Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, pavlaki1968Lotus dorycnium Lotus dorycnium Badassi Photo: CC BY, Louis Aureglia Lotus dumetorum Fabaceae Lotus edulis Lotus edulis Edible bird's-foot trefoil Photo: CC BY, Katrin Simon Lotus eremiticus Hermit Lotus Vine all 29 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Lotus argenteus; Lotus carthaginiensis; Lotus commutatus; Lotus creticus f. grandiflorus; Lotus creticus subsp. commutatus and 7 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Corse, France, Portugal +15
Wild records
1485 in range · 449 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 20 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (16 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 4 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 37.50_-8.750, lapse-corrected -50 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 78 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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