Southern Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Neptunia lutea (Leavenw.) Benth.
- Family: Pea (Fabaceae)
- Flowering: April-October
- Field Marks: This member of the pea family has doubly pinnately compound leaves with tiny leaflets, 30-60 yellow flowers in rounded heads, short-stalked fruits, and no spines.
- Habitat: Wet meadows, damp fields, wet or dry sand.
- Habit: Herbaceous perennial with thickened, orange taproots.
- Stems: Slender, spreading, usually smooth, up to 3 feet long.
- Leaves: Alternate, doubly pinnately compound, with 8-18 pairs of leaflets; leaflets linear, pointed at the tip, tapering to the base, toothless, usually smooth, up to 1/4 inch long, conspicuously veiny on the lower surface.
- Flowers: 30-60 crowded into spherical heads; heads up to 1/2 inch in diameter.
- Sepals: 5, green, up to 1/10 inch long, united below to form a cup.
- Petals: 5, yellow, up to 1/6 inch long, united below to form a cup with the sepals.
- Stamens: Usually 10.
- Pistils: Ovary superior.
- Fruits: Legumes flat, up to 1 1/2 inches long, up to 3/4 inch wide, on a stalk up to 1/2 inch long.
- Notes: This plant has sensitive leaves which will fold up when touched.
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