Lotus discolorE.Mey.

WFO wfo-0000212187 Accepted WFO 2026-06 6 photographs CC0

Plate 1 figs. a–f · 1 observation

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Lotus discolor, photographed by Jimmy Whatmore
fig. a Jimmy Whatmore, CC0 1.0 / 2020-11-17 / obs. 104801652
Lotus discolor, photographed by Jimmy Whatmore
fig. b Jimmy Whatmore, CC0 1.0 / obs. 104801651
Lotus discolor, photographed by Jimmy Whatmore
fig. c Jimmy Whatmore, CC0 1.0 / obs. 104801279
Lotus discolor, photographed by Jimmy Whatmore
fig. d Jimmy Whatmore, CC0 1.0 / obs. 104801653
Lotus discolor, photographed by Jimmy Whatmore
fig. e Jimmy Whatmore, CC0 1.0 / obs. 104801650
Lotus discolor, photographed by Jimmy Whatmore
fig. f Jimmy Whatmore, CC0 1.0 / obs. 104801654

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 16 botanical countries

Regions where Lotus discolor is native: Angola, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, DR Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe AngolaCameroonCape ProvincesDR CongoEswatiniEthiopiaKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMalawiMozambiqueNigeriaNorthern ProvincesTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabwe
Native distribution of Lotus discolor, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Angola ANG AFRICA
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
DR Congo ZAI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 2 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Lotus brandianus Harms
  • Lotus tigrensis Baker

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.