Bird’s-foot

How to recognise it

Growth form

Annual with prostrate to ascending, softly hairy stems of 5–30 cm, often fanning out from a single point.

Leaf

Pinnate, with 4–13 pairs of very small oval leaflets and a terminal leaflet; softly hairy and greyish green.

Flower

Heads of 2–8 flowers of 3–5 mm, white to pale pink with red veins, on a stalk with a small pinnate bract just below the head. Flowers from May to August.

Fruit/Seed

Curved pods of 1–2 cm, constricted between the seeds like a string of beads, ending in a small beak. When ripe they break into segments with one seed each.

Roots

Slender taproot with small root nodules.

Confusion with

Common bird’s-foot-trefoil also has fruits like a bird’s foot, but it is much larger, with yellow flowers and leaves of five leaflets. Serradella (Ornithopus sativus), once sown as a green manure, is larger with bigger, pinker flowers.

Flowering: May–August · Pruning: September

Why grow it?

• A characteristic species of poor, open sand: where it grows, the soil is still lean and acid, a habitat that has become scarce.
• Like all members of the pea family it has root nodules with bacteria that fix nitrogen from the air.
• Small bees and hoverflies visit the flowers, although it often pollinates itself.
• Part of the mosaic of bare sand and short vegetation that is also home to mining bees, ants and tiger beetles.
• A joy to discover in a thin lawn or on a sandy path: get down on your knees and you find a minute, delicate flower.

Bird’s-foot: where does it grow best?

• In the wild on dry, nutrient-poor, acid sand: open sandy grassland, heathland paths, sandy verges, old sandy tracks and leached inland dunes.
• Full sun; in shade or among tall grass it soon disappears.
• Poor, loose sand without compost or manure, with bare patches here and there.
• In the garden: in a thin lawn on sand, a sandy path, a heather garden or between the stones of a gravel path.

Goes well with

• Sheep’s-bit: Blue pompoms on the same dry, acid sand, much loved by bees.
• Mouse-ear hawkweed: Pale yellow flowers and silvery rosettes in a thin lawn.
• Sheep’s sorrel: Red-brown spikes on poor sand, food plant of the small copper.
• Harebell: Delicate blue bells in summer, for dry, acid soil.
• Grey hair-grass: Blue-grey tufts on open blown sand, a typical partner of sand pioneers.

Bird’s-foot: when and how to plant it?

1. It is rarely sold as a plant: look for seed of wild, preferably local, origin from a nursery or seed supplier specialising in native plants.
2. Sow in September–October or March–April on bare, unfertilised sandy soil. Loosen the surface a little with a rake, sow thinly and press the seed in; do not cover it, or only barely.
3. Mix the seed with a little silver sand so that you sow more evenly. No spacing is needed: the plants stay small.
4. Water only if it stays dry in the first weeks after sowing; never after that.
5. It often returns of its own accord when you make a sandy lawn poorer: stop feeding, remove the clippings and mow less often.
6. Never dig up plants or collect seed in nature reserves; seed from your own garden you are welcome to share.

Care

Water

Not needed. It is adapted to dry sand and dies after setting seed in summer anyway.

Feeding

Never. Fertiliser and compost make grass and larger plants grow, which soon crowd out this little plant.

Mowing

In a thin lawn: mow less often or higher in May–July so that it can flower and set seed. Mow in September and remove the cuttings.

Bare patches

In autumn, rake open a small patch of bare sand here and there, where new seed can germinate.

Letting it seed

As an annual it has to set seed every year: so do not mow before the pods are brown and ripe.

Tip: In May and June, skip part of your sandy lawn a few times when mowing: it often colours up of its own accord with bird’s-foot, mouse-ear hawkweed and sheep’s sorrel.

Pruning and mowing

Pruning months: September.

When: No pruning is needed. Only mow the thin grassland it grows in from September, when the pods are ripe.

How:

• Skip a few mowings in May–July or mow high, so that it can flower and set seed.
• Mow short in September and remove the cuttings: this keeps the soil poor.
• Leave the cuttings on the spot for a few days first, so that the last seeds drop out.

Pruning: when and how · Pruning calendar and basic rules

Propagation

Seed

The only way, as it is an annual. The ripe pods break into one-seeded segments; scatter them on bare sand in September–October.

Hay

Cuttings with ripe pods from your own thin grassland can be spread over another patch of bare sand.

Bird’s-foot: how does it get through the winter?

Hardy to −20 °C.

• Seed that germinates in autumn overwinters as a small, flat plant; other seed only germinates in spring.
• The old plants die after setting seed in summer; the seed stays in the soil until a bare patch appears again.
• Frost does not harm the young plants; wet, rich soil does.

Diseases and pests

• Grass taking over: On fertilised or increasingly rich soil, grass smothers it. Do not feed, remove the cuttings and create bare patches now and then.
• Too much shade: Under trees or tall shrubs it disappears. Keep its spot sunny and open.
• Hard to find: Seed is rarely for sale. Ask a local nature group or a native plant nursery, or make your sandy lawn poorer and wait.
• Mowing too early: If you mow short every week you will never get seed. Leave part of the lawn uncut until after flowering.

Through the year

• March: Sowing on bare sand is still possible. Seedlings from autumn keep growing.
• April: The stems spread out. Do not feed.
• May: Flowering begins. Mow around it or mow high.
• June: Full flower. The first ‘bird’s feet’ appear.
• July: Flowering and seed setting.
• August: Pods ripen; the old plants die off.
• September: Mow and remove the cuttings. Sow on bare sand and rake open small bare patches.
• October: The first seedlings appear.

Did you know?

• The scientific name comes from the Greek ornis (bird) and pous (foot), after the curved pods that spread like toes; perpusillus means ‘very small’.
• When ripe, the pod does not split open like a pea pod but breaks into segments, each holding one seed.
• Its larger relative serradella used to be sown on poor sandy soils as fodder and green manure.