Learning about a new perennial
I’ve been landscaping for twenty six seasons and there is always something new to learn. Especially plants. And recently I’ve been running into a yellow-flowered perennial which we consider a weed on our strata sites because we don’t want it.
I have a client who struggles with this unwanted plant in his front lawn. Also, my commercial sites have the plant growing through my heather plants which makes it hard to pull them out. And even worse, workers send me pictures of it and ask if they should remove it. I even photographed the plant on my sister’s ranch outside Kamloops, British Columbia.
Since I had no idea what it was called, I had to look it up.
Red Seal Vas gets schooled
So, first, we have to identify the plant. Luckily, it shows up in my copy of “Popular wildflowers of BC and Vancouver Island” by Neil L. Jennings. It’s called Lotus corniculatus or Bird’s Foot Trefoil. Jennings tells us that this was a pasture plant in Europe. It’s a low-growing, sprawling, creeping perennial.
I don’t mind the look; I like yellow flowers. But it’s the sprawling, creeping habit that’s annoying because it’s hard to pull out of heather plants. Bird’s Foot Trefoil flowers from June to September and you can expect the flowers to turn into seed pods.
So is it a weed? Technically yes, if you don’t want it. Otherwise, it’s a decent looking perennial wildflower from the pea family. I got the worker who texted me about it to pull it out because it was smothering groundcover plants. If I find growing in open spots, I will most likely leave it alone.
And the next time my workers ask me about it, I will tell them it’s Lotus corniculatus and refer them to this brilliant blog post.
Conclusion
Learning never stops! I’m used to that but I’m not used to all of a sudden seeing the same unknown plant everywhere. I had to look it up this weekend.
So keep working on your plant identification skills.
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