The Illustrated Dictionary of Gardening

Every genus a Victorian gardener could grow — Abelia to Zygopetalum across four volumes, with each plant's history, species, and culture, by the Curator of Kew.

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Ornithopus

(from ornis, ornithos, a bird, and pous, a foot; referring to the claw-like legumes or seed-pods). Bird's Foot. Including Astrolobium. ORD. Leguminosae. A genus comprising about seven species of small, low-growing, hardy annuals. Flowers small, pink, white, or yellow, in long peduncled heads or umbels. Leaves impari-pinnate. None of the species are worth growing for horticultural purposes. The genus is represented in the British Flora by O. ebracteatus (from Scilly and the Channel Islands), with bright yellow flowers, veined with red, and O. perpusillus, a widely-distributed species, with white, red-veined flowers.

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