Garden and Flowers

The pendulous stems of needle-shaped foliage superficially resemble those of ornamental asparagus. The flowers of Lotus make you open your eyes - what a magnificent display of red, orange, or yellow! The plants are widely propagated by cuttings nowadays, and the flowers are no longer the preserve of those with greenhouses. You can buy the plants in flower in late spring. Make sure you have a very warm and sheltered spot for it, but preferably not in full sunlight. The soil should be well drained, so that it does not stay wet in cool weather. It should not, however, dry out entirely. If your green fingers can ensure all that, the plant will flower until far into autumn. You can then, if you wish, keep it in a light position at a temperature between 41 °F and 54 °F until the following spring.

Lotus berthelotii is a perennial plant native to the Canary Islands, in the genus Lotus. It has a creeping or trailing habit, with leaves divided into 3-5 slender leaflets, each leaflet 1-2 cm long and 1 mm broad, densely covered with fine silvery hairs. The flowers are orange-red to red, peaflower-shaped, but slender, 2-4 cm long and 5-8 mm broad. This plant is either extinct in the wild or persists as a few individuals. In 1884 it was already classed as “exceedingly rare” and plant collection probably hastened its decline.

The flowers of Lotus berthelotii and some other Canary Island species appear to be adapted for bird pollination. It was once thought that the original pollinators of these plants (and other genera such as Isoplexis and Canarina) were sunbirds which had become extinct on the Canary Islands, explaining why they are rare and considered endangered species.