Trifolium buckwestiorum |
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Santa Cruz clover |
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Habit | Herbs annual, 5–40 cm, glabrous. |
Stems | decumbent to ascending or erect, slightly branched. |
Leaves | palmate; stipules whitish with prominent green veins, ovate, 0.3–0.5 cm, margins lacerate, apex acute to acuminate; petiole 1–2.4 cm; petiolules to 0.5 mm; leaflets 3, blades obovate to elliptic, 0.6–1.5 × 0.3–0.8 cm, base cuneate, veins ± thickened distally, margins denticulate, sometimes entire proximally, apex rounded, acute, or retuse, surfaces glabrous. |
Inflorescences | terminal or axillary, 15–20-flowered (early inflorescences hidden in stipules, subsessile, 2–5-flowered, flowers cleistogamous), subglobose, 0.5–0.8 × 0.6–0.8 cm; involucres flattened or shallowly bowl-shaped, 6–8 mm, when folded, nearly hiding calyces, glabrous or sparsely hairy, lobes 4 or 5, ± parallel-sided, 3 or 4-toothed. |
Peduncles | 1–3.5 cm. |
Pedicels | straight, to 0.5 mm; bracteoles absent. |
Flowers | 7–8 mm; calyx tubular, 4–5 mm, glabrous, veins 10, tube 2–2.5 mm, lobes subequal, triangular, margins conspicuously 2 or 3-toothed, apex aristate, orifice open; corolla pale pink or white, 6–7 mm, banner oblong, 5–7 × 1 mm, apex emarginate or erose. |
Legumes | ovoid, 2.5 mm. |
Seeds | 1, dark brown, slightly mottled, ovoid, 2 mm, smooth. |
Trifolium buckwestiorum |
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Phenology | Flowering May–Jun. |
Habitat | Meadows, roadsides, grassy hillsides. |
Elevation | 0–300 m. (0–1000 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA |
Discussion | Trifolium buckwestiorum, which ranges from Mendocino to Monterey counties, is unique among clovers in North America because of its aboveground cleistogamous, axillary flowers. The only other clover in North America that produces cleistogamous flowers is T. amphianthum, which produces its cleistogamous flowers at ground level and then pushes them into the substrate. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | |
Sibling taxa | |
Name authority | Isely: Madroño 39: 90, fig. 2. (1992) |
Web links |