Lotus maculatus

Lotus maculatus is a trailing herbaceous plant with slightly woody stem bases. The stems often reach 1.5 meters in length or even 2.5 m, but do not exceed 30 centimeters in cultivation. The plant is nearly hairless with grey-green leaves and stems, though often touched with pink during the summer. Its stems are woody at their base and have a length of 3.5 to 4.5 cm between nodes where leaves attach with side branches of the same length.^[3]

It is very similar in appearance to lotus vine flower (Lotus berthelotii), also native to the islands, but has wider leaves its flowers are yellow with orange-red tips where the lotus vine flower has red flowers.^[4]

Lotus maculatus was scientifically described by Charlotte Breitfeld (1902–2003) and named in 2008.^[2] This unusual state is because while she described the plant in 1973, it was improperly done from multiple specimens. Therefore, it was described again in 2008 by Nicholas Hind using one holotype as required by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, but again crediting the work of Breitfeld.^[5]

Names

It is known by the common names of fire vine or pigeon beak,^[6][7] however other species such as Lotus berthelotii are also known as pigeon beak.^[8] In Spanish on the islands it is called pico de paloma manchada, "spotted dove beak".^[9]

This species grows in the wild in a small area on the north side of the island of Tenerife. When assessed in 2011 only 28 plants were known to grow outside of cultivation and their numbers were decreasing. All of its range is found between elevations of 20 and 30 meters above sea level.^[1]