Trifolium pratense

Erect or decumbent perennial herb; stems numerous, 40–100 cm long, simple or branched, sparingly hairy to glabrous. Leaves palmately trifoliolate, short- to long-petiolate; leaflets elliptic to obovate or suborbicular, mostly 30–60 mm long, 10–35 mm wide, appressed-hairy on both or just lower surface, sometimes spotted, apex acute, obtuse or retuse, margins virtually entire; stipules adnate to petioles, membranous, veined, hairy or glabrescent. Inflorescence many-flowered, terminal, globose or ovoid, 20–30 mm long, 20–30 mm wide, solitary or paired, usually sessile; flowers sessile. Calyx c. 7 mm long, tube cylindric-campanulate, 10-veined, throat narrowed by an annular thickening in fruit, teeth unequal, hairy, often reddish, lower tooth about twice as long as tube, others about equal to tube, blunt, erect in fruit; corolla 15–18 mm long, pink to purple, persistent; standard notched, longer than wings and keel. Pod ovoid, 2–4 mm long, included in calyx tube; seed 1, oblong-ovoid, c. 1.5 mm long, yellow, brown or violet, tuberculate. Flowers mainly Oct.–May.