Trifolium tomentosum |
Trifolium depauperatum |
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woolly clover |
balloon sack clover, cowbag clover, dwarf sack clover, poverty clover |
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Habit | Herbs annual, 10–20 cm, glabrous or sparsely hairy. | Herbs annual, 1–30 cm, glabrous. | ||||||||
Stems | prostrate, ascending, or erect, branched. |
erect or decumbent, branched. |
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Leaves | palmate; stipules ovate or triangular-lanceolate, 0.4–1.2 cm, margins entire, apex acute or acuminate; petiole 0.5–7 cm; petiolules to 1 mm; leaflets 3, blades obovate, obcordate, or elliptic, 0.4–1.5 × 0.3–1 cm, base cuneate, veins moderately prominent, margins denticulate, apex rounded or emarginate, surfaces sparsely hairy abaxially, glabrous adaxially. |
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. |
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Inflorescences | axillary, 10–20-flowered, subglobose, soon becoming globose, flowers resupinate, calyces densely white-woolly, compacted, inflated, 0.5–1.5 × 0.5–1.5 cm; involucres a narrow rim, 0.2 mm. |
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. |
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Peduncles | 0.5–1.5 cm. |
2–6 cm. |
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Pedicels | slightly reflexed, to 0.5 mm; bracteoles cup-shaped, membranous, 0.2 mm. |
straight, 0–0.5 mm; bracteoles absent. |
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Flowers | 3–7 mm; calyx tubular, inflated in fruit, markedly asymmetric-bilabiate, 2–6 mm, woolly adaxially, veins 5–10, connected by lateral veins, tube 1.5–2.5 mm, 4–5 mm in fruit, lobes unequal, subulate, shorter than tube, adaxial spreading or curved, orifice open, abruptly constricted in fruit; corolla pink, 3–6 mm, banner ovate, 3–6 × 3–6 mm, apex emarginate to crenulate. |
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. |
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Legumes | ovoid to globose, 2–3 mm. |
sessile or stipitate, ovoid, obovoid, or oblong, 2–4 mm. |
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Seeds | 1 or 2, yellow to brown, mottled, mitten-shaped, 0.9–1.1 mm, smooth, glossy. |
1–6, gray or tan, mottled, mitten-shaped, 1.2–1.6 mm, irregularly bumpy. |
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2n | = 16. |
= 16. |
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Trifolium tomentosum |
Trifolium depauperatum |
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Phenology | Flowering Feb–Apr. | |||||||||
Habitat | Sandy lawns, fields, meadows, roadsides, clay soils among vernal pools. | |||||||||
Elevation | 0–400 m. (0–1300 ft.) | |||||||||
Distribution |
CA; FL; MA; NC; SC; s Europe (Mediterranean); sw Asia; n Africa; Atlantic Islands (Azores) [Introduced in North America; introduced also in South America (Chile), s Africa, Pacific Islands (New Zealand), Australia]
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w North America; nw Mexico; c North America; South America (Chile, Peru)
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Discussion | Trifolium tomentosum is occasionally cultivated as a forage crop (F. J. Hermann 1953) and is becoming weedy in the flora area and in Australia (R. P. Randall 2002). (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.) |
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Key |
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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 | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 771. (1753) | Desvaux: J. Bot. Agric. 4: 69, plate 32, fig. 2. (1814) | ||||||||
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