Trifolium scabrum

Prostrate or ascending annual herb; stems 5–35 cm long, striate, flexuose, moderately hairy. Leaves palmately trifoliolate, petiolate to subsessile; leaflets obovate to oblong, 5–15 mm long, 3–6 mm wide, appressed-hairy on both surfaces, lateral veins mostly recurved near margins, margins minutely dentate, obtuse to retuse at apex; stipules membranous, villous, green- or purple-veined. Inflorescence few–many-flowered, ovoid to obovoid, 7–20 mm long, 7–20 mm wide, axillary, sessile; flowers sessile. Calyx 5–8 mm long, appressed-hairy, tube cylindric, 10-veined, throat narrowed by an annular thickening in fruit, teeth unequal, spiny, lower one longer than tube and recurved in fruit, others erect or spreading in fruit; corolla 4–7 mm long, usually white, persistent. Pod ovoid, c. 2 mm long, membranous, included in calyx tube; seed 1, ovoid, c. 1.5 mm long, yellow or brown Flowers mainly Sep.–Dec.