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bird's foot, little white bird's-foot

Stems

5–30 cm.

Leaves

10–40 × 5–10 mm;

stipules deltate, 1 mm;

leaflets 15–27, blades ovate, elliptic, or oblong, leaflets of larger leaves 3–6 × 1–3 mm.

Peduncles

1–3 cm in flower, 2–5 cm in fruit.

Pedicels

0–1 mm.

Flowers

calyx 2–2.5 mm, lobes 0.4–0.7 mm, 1/4–1/3 tube length;

corolla white or pink, sometimes with darker lines, 3–5 mm.

Heads

3–8-flowered, 5 mm diam.;

bract equaling or longer than flowers, 5–9-foliolate.

Seeds

1 × 1 mm.

Loments

compressed, constricted between seeds, 10–18(–25) × 1.5–2 mm;

segments 4–9, elliptic-oblong, 2–2.5 mm;

beaks straight, often hooked at tip, 1–3 mm.

2n

= 14.

Ornithopus perpusillus

Phenology Flowering late spring–summer.
Habitat Disturbed ground, roadsides, waste places.
Elevation 10–50 m. (0–200 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
OR; PA; BC; Europe; temperate w Asia [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
Source FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Ornithopus
Sibling taxa
O. compressus, O. sativus
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 743. (1753)
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