SPECIES DESCRIPTION
TRIFOLIUM ARVENSE
Family and Genus:- See- LEGUMINOSAE/Subgen. TRIFOLIUM/Sect.
Common Names:- Haresfoot clover
Homotypic Synonyms:- None
Meaning:- Trifolium (L) With three leaflets.
Arvense (L) Of the cultivated field, of ploughed fields.
General description:- Slender erect annual.
Stems:-
1) 4-30 cm, erect or diffusely branched, whitish- or reddish-pubescent, rarely
glabrescent.
Leaves:-
1) Upper, sessile, leaflets, 5-20 mm, linear-oblong.
2) Stipules, ovate-oblong, distinctly veined, with a long, cuspidate apex.
Flowers:-
1) Heads, up to 20 mm, numerous, ovoid or oblong, pedunculate, with numerous,
sericeous flowers.
2) Calyx, 3·5-7(-9) mm.
a) tube, narrowly campanulate, with 10 usually purplish veins.
b) teeth, 1-3(-5) times as long as the tube, reddish, subequal, setaceous with
erecto-patent hairs.
3) Corolla, c. 4 mm, white or pale pinkish, shorter than the calyx, wings glabrous.
Key features:-
1) Calyx-teeth, setaceous, usually densely pubescent or villous.
2) Corolla, much shorter than the calyx.
3) Calyx tube, with purplish veins.
Very variable in habit, indumentum, pigmentation, size and shape of the leaflets and
length of the calyx-teeth. Several taxa are recorded over most of Europe.
Habitat:- In a variety of dry, often sandy habitats, pastures, fallow fields, olive
groves, dry open shrubby vegetation, open woodland. 0-1200(-1900) m.
Distribution:- Throughout Greece. - Widespread in Europe and SW Asia.
Widespread and common on Crete.
Flowering time:- Mar to May, occasionally later
Photos by:- Kristin Vigander
