Erect or decumbent annual herb; stems few, 10–30 cm long, striate, reddish, densely villous. Leaves palmately trifoliolate, petiolate to subsessile; leaflets obovate to oblong-cuneate, 8–15 mm long, 6–10 mm wide, appressed-hairy, minutely dentate in upper part, obtuse to retuse at apex; stipules membranous, villous, adnate to petioles for one-third of their length. Inflorescence 20–40-flowered, terminal, globose, c. 20 mm long, c. 20 mm wide, sessile; involucral stipules 3, broadly ovate or orbicular, cuspidate, prominently veined; flowers sessile. Calyx 10–13 mm long, densely covered with appressed hairs, tube obconical, 20-veined, throat open, teeth 2–3 times as long as tube, subequal, blunt, erect or slightly spreading in fruit; fruiting calyx increasing in width; corolla 15–17 mm long, deep pink to purple, persistent; standard lanceolate, acute. Pod obovoid, c. 3 mm long, membranous, included in calyx tube; seed 1, reniform, c. 2 mm long, yellow. Flowers mainly Oct.–Dec.
LoM, MuM, Wim, VVP, MuF, Gold. Also naturalised WA, SA, Qld, NSW. Native to Europe, the Middle East, northern Africa. Established near Maryborough, Kaniva, and Lake Hindmarsh near Jeparit.
