Prostrate or ascending annual herb; stems 5–40 cm long, branching, sparsely hairy to glabrous. Leaves pinnately trifoliolate, short-petiolate; leaflets obovate, 4–13 mm long, 4–8 mm wide, virtually glabrous, finely toothed, apex rounded or retuse; stipules leafy, adnate to base of petioles. Inflorescence 3–20-flowered, axillary, hemispherical, 6–7 mm long, 8–9 mm wide, pedunculate; flowers subsessile. Calyx 1.5–2 mm long, glabrous, tube campanulate, 5-veined, throat open, teeth unequal, spiny, erect in fruit, lower 3 teeth almost twice as long as tube, upper teeth shorter than tube; corolla 3–4 mm long, yellow, persistent; standard ovate, conduplicate, margins entire or obscurely dentate. Pod globose, c. 2 mm long, included in calyx tube; seed 1, ovoid, c. 1 mm long, brownish. Flowers mainly Sep.–Jan.
LoM, MuM, Wim, GleP, Brid, VVP, VRiv, MuF, GipP, OtP, WaP, Gold, CVU, GGr, DunT, NIS, EGL, EGU, WPro, HSF, HNF, OtR, Strz, MonT, HFE, VAlp. Also naturalised WA, SA, Qld, NSW, ACT, Tas. Native to Europe, the Middle East. Common and widespread in Victoria.
