SPECIES DESCRIPTION
TRIFOLIUM UNIFLORUM
Family and Genus:- See- LEGUMINOSAE/Subgen. LOTOIDES/Sect.
Common Names:- One-flowered clover
Homotypic Synonyms:- Lupinaster uniflorus.
Meaning:- Trifolium (L) With three leaflets.
Uniflorum (L) One-flowered.
General description:- Variable low tufted or mat-forming perennial with a long
taproot.
Stems:-
1) 5-15(-30) cm tufted, caespitose, procumbent. Internodes very short.
Leaves:-
1) Petioles, 10-30(-70) mm, glabrous or appressed-pubescent.
2) Leaflets, 4-10 mm, orbicular, obovate-rhombic, acute or obtuse, apiculate,
strongly veined with cusped teeth, often appressed-pubescent beneath.
3) Stipules, broadly triangular, acuminate, membranous, imbricate.
Flowers:-
1) Inflorescences, 1-3(-5)-flowered, short-pedunculate, crowded.
2) Pedicels, 1-7 mm, usually shorter than the calyx-tube, curved or deflexed and
sometimes much thickened in fruit.
3) Calyx tube, cylindrical, 6-7 mm, glabrous or pubescent; 10-veined;
a) teeth, subequal, narrowly lanceolate, straight, usually much shorter than the
tube,
4) Corolla, 15-20 mm, much longer than calyx, white, cream or pinkish.
a) standard, strongly recurved.
Fruit:-
1) Legume, linear, acute, pubescent above. 3-5-seeded, beaked.
Key features:-
1) Corolla, 15-20 mm.
2) Legume, not or slightly exserted.
3) Peduncles, less than 15 mm, usually concealed by the stipules.
5) Calyx-tube, cylindrical.
Habitat:- Coastal habitats, rocky slopes with dry open shrubby vegetation and
open coniferous woodland, field margins, generally 0-800 m. (-1700 m. in dolines).
Distribution:- Rare in W Greece, - Locally also in S Italy, Cyrenaica and W
Anatolia, Widespread and common on Crete.
Flowering time:- Early Mar to late July.
Photo by:- Steve Lenton
