Family: Fabaceae
Trifolium striatum
Citation:
L., Sp. Pl. 770 (1753).
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: Knotted clover.
Description:
Annual; stems softly hairy, spreading or ascending, 4-50 cm long; lower leaves on long petioles, the upper on shorter; leaflets subsessile, obovate or obovate-oblong, 7-15 mm long, obtuse to obcordate, with lateral veins almost straight and ending in the faintly denticulate margin; stipules ovate, the free portion triangular, their apex abruptly ending in a subulate ciliate cusp.
Flowers several (to 30 or more) heads ovoid to oblong, 10-15 mm wide, becoming cylindrical, sessile, axillary and pseudoterminal, usually not paired; calyx c. 6 mm long, tube ellipsoid, 2.5-3 mm long, striate with 10 nerves, throat of the calyx open, usually appressed-hairy, somewhat inflated and readily abscissing at maturity; calyx teeth erect or somewhat spreading, subequal, about half the length of the tube, lanceolate-subulate, acute; corolla 4-5 mm long, pink; the standard free, usually exceeding the upper calyx teeth, persistent.
Pod somewhat obovoid, scarious, enclosed, 1-seeded; seed ovoid, to subglobose, c. 1.5 mm long, yellow-brown, smooth.
| Twig, flower and calyx, with legume.
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Image source: fig. 354e in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).
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Published illustration:
Hegi (1924) Illustrierte Flora von Mittel-Europa 4, 3:t. 163.
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Distribution:
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S.Aust.: NL, MU, SL, SE. W.Aust.; N.S.W.; Vic.; Tas. New Zealand. Native to Europe, northern Africa and western Asia; weed of cultivated ground.
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Conservation status:
naturalised
Flowering time: Oct. — Jan.
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SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
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Biology:
No text
Taxonomic notes:
Variable in size, habit and the relative lengths of calyx tube, calyx teeth and petals, robust plants from southern Europe, with stems up to 50 cm long, heads cylindrical and corolla not exceeding the upper calyx teeth, have been described as T. tenuiflorum Ten., Fl. Nap. Prodr. xliv (1811), (T. incanum C. Presl). This taxon may merit subspecific rank (Coombe (1968) Flora Europaea 2:167.)
Author:
Not yet available
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