Trifolium pilulare

Boiss.
Diagn. Pl. Orient. 2: 29 (1843)
Taxonomic status Accepted
Occurrence status Extinct
Origin Introduced

Erect annual herb; stems 10–50 cm long, branching, villous. Leaves pinnately trifoliolate, long- and short-petiolate; leaflets obovate to obcordate, 4–12 mm long, 3–7(–12) mm wide, appressed-hairy, apex notched, rounded or truncate, often apiculate, upper margins minutely denticulate; stipules membranous. Inflorescence with 1 or 2 fertile flowers and numerous sterile flowers developing later, axillary, ovoid or globular, 6–9 mm long, 6–9 mm wide, pedunculate; flowers sessile. Fertile calyx c. 6 mm long, densely villous, tube cylindric, teeth as long or longer than tube, equal, acute, plumose; sterile calyx with solid, stalk-like tube, teeth linear, plumose; corolla 6–7 mm long, white; standard slightly longer than wings and keel. Fruiting heads separating as a whole from stem; pod ovoid-obtuse, membranous, included in calyx tube; seeds 1 or 2, ovoid-globular,c. 2 mm long, dark brown, shiny. Flowers Oct. (1 record).

Naturalised in SA. Native to Greece and western Asia. Native to the Middle East, recorded once in Victoria in 1914 at Gunbower, with no subsequent records of this species here or elsewhere in Victoria.

Created by: Andre Messina, 20 May 2016
Updated by: Val Stajsic, 18 Dec. 2018
Trifolium pilulare (distribution map) Spinning