SPECIES DESCRIPTION
TRIFOLIUM PATENS
Family and Genus:- See- LEGUMINOSAE/Subgen. LOTOIDES/Sect.
Common Names:- None
Homotypic Synonyms:- Amarenus patens, Chrysaspis patens.
Meaning:- Trifolium (L) With three leaflets.
Patens (L) Spreading from the stem, patent.
General description:- Sparsely hairy annual.
Stems:-
1) 20-50 cm, flexuous, erect or ascending.
Leaves:-
1) Leaflets, up to 18 mm, narrowly elliptic-obovate, the terminal subsessile, or with
a petiolule up to 2 mm.
2) Stipules, ovate, dilated and rounded at the base.
Flowers:-
1) Heads, 10-15 mm in fruit.
2) Peduncles, 20-50 mm, slender, usually much longer than the leaves.
3) Flowers subsessile.
4) Calyx-teeth:
a) upper, shorter than the upper limb of the calyx-tube;
b) lower, equal to or longer than the lower limb of the calyx-tube.
5) Corolla, 5-7 mm, yellow,
a) standard limb, oblong-ovate, sulcate.
Fruit:-
1) Seeds, ovoid or ellipsoid, non-flattish or only slightly so, hilum rounded, 1-1.3 x
08-1 mm. Surface smooth, medium-lustrous, yellow or pale-brown (older Seeds).
Key features:-
1) Leaflets, obovate-cuneate or narrowly ellipticobovate, widest near the apex.
2) Stems, 20-50 cm.
3) Leaflets, up to 18 mm, narrowly elliptic-obovate.
4) Corolla, 5-7 mm.
Habitat:- Wet grassland, by springs and in other marshy habitats. 0-800(-1300) m.
on various, usually non-calcareous substrates.
Distribution:- Throughout Greece mainly in the west, widespread in C. And S.
Europe. Rare on Crete, known from only a few scattered locations.
Flowering time:- Late Apr to June.
Photos by:- Dr. Armin Jagel
