Trifolium hirtum |
Trifolium depauperatum |
|||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
rose clover |
balloon sack clover, cowbag clover, dwarf sack clover, poverty clover |
|||||||||
Habit | Herbs annual, 10–35 cm, densely spreading-hairy. | Herbs annual, 1–30 cm, glabrous. | ||||||||
Stems | curved-ascending, branched. |
erect or decumbent, branched. |
||||||||
Leaves | palmate; stipules lanceolate-ovate, 0.8–1.8 cm, margins entire, apex long-setaceous; petiole 0.5–5 cm; petiolules 0.5 mm; leaflets 3, blades obovate to oblong, 0.8–2.5 × 0.5–1.3 cm, base cuneate, veins prominent, closely-spaced, margins denticulate distally, apex rounded, surfaces densely spreading-hairy. |
palmate; stipules sheathing proximally, ovate-oblong to lanceolate, 0.4–1.3 cm, margins entire or serrulate, apex short triangular-cuspidate; petiole 1–5 cm; petiolules to 1 mm; leaflets 3, blades lanceolate, linear, obovate, or oblanceolate, 0.4–2.5 × 0.1–0.7 cm, base cuneate, veins moderately thickened abaxially, margins entire, serrate, or pinnately lobed, apex rounded, truncate, acute, or retuse, surfaces glabrous. |
||||||||
Inflorescences | terminal on branches, 10–50-flowered, globose or ovoid, disarticulating in fruit, 1.5–2.5 × 1.5–2.5 cm; involucres absent, involucrelike structures formed by enlarged stipules. |
axillary or terminal, 3–15-flowered, globose or depressed-globose, 0.5–1.5 × 0.5–1.5 cm; involucres flattened, 3–13 mm, ± distinct or incised 1/2 their length, lobes 5–7, linear to elliptic or irregular, or vestigial, reduced to narrow ring, apex rounded to broad and irregularly erose, not split. |
||||||||
Peduncles | absent. |
2–6 cm. |
||||||||
Pedicels | absent; bracteoles absent. |
straight, 0–0.5 mm; bracteoles absent. |
||||||||
Flowers | 10–17 mm; calyx campanulate, 7–11 mm, pilose, veins 20, tube 2–5 mm, lobes subequal, abaxial slightly longer, orifice hairy, open; corolla purplish red, 10–14 mm, banner lanceolate, 10–14 × 1–2 mm, apex acute-acuminate. |
3–10 mm; calyx campanulate, 2–5 mm, glabrous, veins 5, tube 1–2.5 mm, lobes unequal, triangular-lanceolate or subulate, orifice open; corolla white or pink, 3–11 mm, inflated in fruit, banner broadly ovate, 4–7 × 3–8 mm, apex rounded, broad, acute, or retuse. |
||||||||
Legumes | ovoid, leathery distally, transversely dehiscent, 2–3 mm. |
sessile or stipitate, ovoid, obovoid, or oblong, 2–4 mm. |
||||||||
Seeds | 1, tan or brown, globose-ellipsoid, 1.5–2 mm, smooth, glossy. |
1–6, gray or tan, mottled, mitten-shaped, 1.2–1.6 mm, irregularly bumpy. |
||||||||
2n | = 10. |
= 16. |
||||||||
Trifolium hirtum |
Trifolium depauperatum |
|||||||||
Phenology | Flowering Apr–Jun. | |||||||||
Habitat | Fields, roadsides. | |||||||||
Elevation | 0–2100 m. (0–6900 ft.) | |||||||||
Distribution |
AL; CA; FL; LA; NC; OR; TN; VA; s Europe; w Asia; n Africa [Introduced in North America; introduced also in s Africa, Pacific Islands (New Zealand), Australia]
|
w North America; nw Mexico; c North America; South America (Chile, Peru)
|
||||||||
Discussion | Trifolium hirtum was first cultivated in California in the 1940s as a forage plant and as a nitrogen source in roadside grass plantings (R. M. Love 1985); it is now widespread in that state. It was reported for Kentucky by D. Isely (1998); no non-cultivated specimens have been seen from that state (M. A. Vincent 2001). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Varieties 3 (3 in the flora). The three varieties of Trifolium depauperatum are relatively easily distinguished by characteristics of the involucres and fruit stipes. Leaf morphology is not helpful in making the distinctions; in each variety, leaf margins can range from nearly entire or toothed or laciniate. In the phylogenetic treatment by N. W. Ellison et al. (2006), T. depauperatum is not allied with T. fucatum and other clovers with inflated corollas but rather with T. obtusiflorum, T. trichocalyx, and T. willdenovii (although with weak support). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||||||
Key |
|
|||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Trifolium | Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Trifolium | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | Lupinaster depauperatus | |||||||||
Name authority | Allioni: Auct. Fl. Pedem., 20. (1789) | Desvaux: J. Bot. Agric. 4: 69, plate 32, fig. 2. (1814) | ||||||||
Web links |
|
|