SPECIES DESCRIPTION
TRIFOLIUM TENUIFOLIUM
Family and Genus:- See- LEGUMINOSAE/Subgen. LOTOIDES/Sect.
Common Names:- None
Homotypic Synonyms:- Trifolium bocconei subsp. tenuifolium.
Meaning:- Trifolium (L) With three leaflets.
Tenuifolium (L) With narrow leaves, slender-leaved
General description:- Low to short, hairy annual.
Stems:-
1) 10-30 cm. branched; and spreading, with patent hairs.
Leaves:-
1) Leaflets, 8-10 mm. those of the upper leaves linear or oblong.
2) Stipules, semiovate, dilated and rounded at the base.
Flowers:-
1) Heads, up to 30 mm in fruit, ovoid, lax.
2) Peduncles, shorter than or equalling the leaves.
3) Pedicels, 1-2 mm. longer than the upper limb of the calyx-tube.
3) Calyx patent-pubescent.
4) Calyx-teeth:
a) upper, equalling or shorter than the upper limb of the calyx-tube.
b) lower, 2-3 times longer than the upper, connivent in fruit.
5) Corolla, 9-14 mm, twice as long as the calyx, cream to pale pinkish
a) standard, narrower, more or less folded longitudinally over the legume
Fruit:-
1) Legume scarcely exceeding the style.
Key features:-
1) Corolla, exceeding the lowest calyx-tooth, twice as long as the calyx.
2) Upper leaflets, linear.
Habitat:- Scrubland vegetation and mixed scrub, meadows, by streams and
embankments of forest roads, 0-850
Distribution:- Scattered throughout mainland Greece, Peloponnisos and Ionian
Islands. - S Italy and Balkan Peninsula, rare in Anatolia. Sparsely scatterd across
the central and western areas of Crete.
Flowering time:- Late Apri to early July
Photo by:- A. N. Other
