Trifolium ornithopodioides
L. Bird's-foot CloverProstrate or procumbent annual herb; stems 5–30 cm long, glabrous. Leaves palmately trifoliolate, long-petiolate; leaflets oblanceolate to obovate, 4–14 mm long, 3–8 mm wide, virtually glabrous, apex truncate or retuse, mucronate, upper margins finely serrate. Inflorescence 1–5-fiowered, axillary, umbellate, 8–12 mm long, 5–11 mm wide, shortly pedunculate; flowers on pedicels 1–3 mm long. Calyx c. 5 mm long; tube cylindric, 10-veined, throat open, teeth longer than tube, equal, spiny, erect in fruit; corolla 6–8 mm long, white or pink, persistent; standard oblong, rounded at apex, longer than wings and keel. Pod linear-oblong, slightly falcate, 6–8 mm long, exserted from calyx tube; seeds 2–9, ovoid, c. 1 mm long, brown with darker spots. Flowers mainly Sep.–Jan.
Wim, GleP, VVP, VRiv, MuF, GipP, OtP, CVU, DunT, NIS, EGL, HSF, HNF, OtR. Also naturalised WA, SA, NSW, Tas. Native to Europe, northern Africa. Scattered widely across Victoria in wet areas and on pasture land.
Jeanes, J.A. (1996). Fabaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 663–829. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
