Citation: L., Demonstr. Pl. 21 (1753).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Cupped clover.

Description:
Prostrate or ascending villous annual with spreading hairs; stems 5-30 cm long, rarely branching above; leaves on pedicels shorter or longer than the leaflets; leaflets distinctly petiolulate, obcordate-cuneate, 6-25 mm long, retuse to obcordate, almost entire; veins obscure, hardly anastomosing; stipules ovate-lanceolate, 5-15 mm long, herbaceous, distinctly veined, the short apex often recurved.

Flowers 20 or more in sessile single rarely paired ovoid-globose heads 8-16 mm wide, with 3 orbicular often coloured stipules forming a circular involucre, often coloured and radially veined, to 10 mm across, abscissing below with the corresponding leaf in fruit; calyx campanulate, 20-nerved, 6-8 mm long, densely hirsute to villous; throat open, densely villous; calyx teeth more or less equalling the tube, subequal, stiff, erect, setaceous, usually blunt, long-ciliate; corolla pinkish-white to cream, rarely reddish, equalling or shorter than the calyx; fruiting calyces joined to the rhachis and not separating at maturity.

Pod ovoid, 1.5-2 mm long, scarious, enclosed, 1-seeded; seed obliquely ovoid, c. 1.5 mm, brown, smooth.

Image source: fig. 353E in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Distribution:  S.Aust.: NL, MU, SL.   W.Aust.   Native to the Mediterranean and spread through the Middle-East. Conservation status: naturalised Flowering time: Oct. — Dec.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available