Bird's-foot-trefoil
Bird's-foot-trefoil
Wildflower
A low, sprawling yellow pea-flower of grassland — nicknamed 'eggs and bacon', with seed pods shaped like a bird's foot and a starring role for the common blue butterfly.
💡 Fun Facts
- Its seed pods splay out like the toes of a bird's foot — that is how it got its name.
- The yellow-and-orange flowers give it the nickname 'eggs and bacon'.
- It is the special foodplant for the caterpillars of the beautiful common blue butterfly.
📅 Through the Year
- Flowering:May to September
Name Story
Lotus corniculatus
means “An old plant-name with 'little horns' — for its tiny curved seed pods”
likely meaningLotus here is a very old borrowed plant-name, not the lotus flower — and scholars aren't sure exactly which plant the ancient Greeks first meant by it. The 'little horns' part is certain.
What does its name mean?
- Lotus — an ancient borrowed plant-name (not the lotus flower)Greek
- corniculatus — having little hornsLatin
After the yellow flowers fade, the slender pods splay out in a little cluster — like a bunch of tiny horns, or the splayed toes of a bird's foot.