Seed pods look like a claw (Birds-Foot Trefoil)

Member Name: mumsymary

Product:	Birds-Foot Trefoil
Date:	25/06/07 (140 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good wildlife plant

Disadvantages: none

Birds foot trefoil, eggs and bacon as I used to call it when I was a nipper. Lotus corniculatus It is a member of the Leguminoseae family.
I have some growing on my wildflower “lawn”
Bird’s foot trefoil is a perennial it grows on short grassland grows in meadows and on grass verges.

First to describe this plant.
Slender stems can grow 10 to 40 cm tall these stems have stems branching out from them. .It has 5 leaves 3 of which grow trifoliate look like a trefoil.

The flowers are a bright yellow with a few orange streaks hence the eggs and bacon name. These look like a pea/ bean flower. 4 -6 of these flowers grow in a cluster at the end of a stem. .The flowers are about 15mm long.
They will flower from April till about September.
The flowers will self pollinate but they are frequently visited by bees and butterflies too.
This really is a pretty flower to see in the grass.

Seeds form from these flowers and the seed pods are what gives the name birds foot to this plant as the seed pods grow in a long pod in a group of and they look like a birds foot with its claws spread out .

So why do I like this wild flower in my garden, yes its pretty and reminds me of the village green where I grew up?. Also it is a good plant for butterflies.

It will like my garden as it is on a chalk soil and bird’s foot trefoil can grow on poor soil.


So much of our countryside has been dug up for roads and new houses used for agriculture in a way that does not benefit wildlife. I like to think by growing and having a wild life garden will help keep England’s native species of flowers and insects alive. In the past 20years or so wild gardening has become more popular a lot of gardeners giving a small corner over to wildlife. Some gardeners garden organically like I do, some grow native wildlife plants that will attract birds and butterflies. I have been gardening for wildlife consciously for the past 30 years. Since I got my own house and garden. I started of in a small way and now for the past 12 years I have had a completely wild garden with a small veggie patch which I garden organically.

Back to the bird’s foot trefoil …………….

Yes it’s good for butterflies. The caterpillar of the common blue butterfly will feast on all parts of the bird’s foot trefoil. Other caterpillars of butterflies will eat birds foot trefoil too the Dingy skipper, the green hairstreak, the wood white, short tailed and silver studded blue too. The clouded yellow a migrant more common in recent years will breed on this plant. Burnett moth caterpillars enjoy this as its food plant too. Bees love to suck the nectar from this flower. Since it is so popular with caterpillars I bet other species as well as butterflies feast on this plant.
Although it is a pea shape so maybe a little difficult to feed nectar from several adult butterfly species can get their proboscis into the flower to sup sweet nectar.
Although insects love this plant it is toxic to humans.

This plant being a member of the pea family is good for fixing nitrogen in the soil. It is good to use a green manure
Plants are available to buy at 46p each from http://www.wildflowers.co.uk/ 3 plants cost £9 from http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk
Seeds are available from http://www.englishplants.co.uk/store/there are about 500 seeds in a 1g packet.

Farmers like this plant in the meadow as it helps reduce the bloat in greedy cattles tummies , also it is thought to be good for sheep as sheep that graze on it suffer from parasites less .

Whatever you do, do not remove plants from the countryside I think it’s illegal. Also you will destroy that habitat.




.

Summary: A wild flower that I grow in my wildflower lawn