SPECIES DESCRIPTION
TRIFOLIUM LAPPACEUM
Family and Genus:- See- LEGUMINOSAE/Subgen. TRIFOLIUM/Sect.
Common Names:- Burdock clover
Homotypic Synonyms:- None
Meaning:- Trifolium (L) With three leaflets.
Lappaceum (L) Bearing buds, bud-like, burdock-like, burr-like.
General description:- Short, erect to spreading, annual.
Stems:-
1) 5-40 cm., numerous usually branched glabrescent, erect or ascending.
Leaves:-
1) Leaflets, 5-20 mm, obovate-cuneate, obtuse, shallowly dentate. hairy.
2) Stipules, oblong, conspicuously veined; apex long, lanceolate or subulate,
herbaceous, hairy.
Flowers:-
1) Heads, 12-20 mm wide, globose, rarely ovoid.
2) Peduncles, up to 35 mm in fruit.
3) Calyx-tube, campanulate, with 20 conspicuous veins, glabrous or glabrescent,
rarely hairy,
a) teeth, 3·5-6 mm, longer than the tube, prominently 5-veined and triangular
below, filiform and hairy above.
4) Corolla, 7-8 mm, white or pink. equalling the calyx at anthesis, much shorter
than the calyx in fruit.
Fruit:-
1) Legume, ovate, with a thickened apex.
Key features:-
1) Stems, 5-40 cm.
2) Heads, solitary.
3) Calyx-tube, glabrous or glabrescent.
4) Fruiting heads, shortly pedunculate, not involucrate.
Habitat:- Sandy and saline coastal habitats, seasonally damp meadows, dry open
shrubby vegetation, olive groves, open woodland, fallow fields. 0-1100 m.
Distribution:- Throughout Greece. - Widespread in the Mediterranean region
extending to W Syria, N Iraq and N Iran. Fairly widespread on Crete.
Flowering time:- Apr to mid-June.
Photo by:- Dr. Armin Jagel
