Pea Family [Fabaceae] |
status
flower
morph
petals
type
type
stem
9th June 2015, river promenade, Lancaster, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
A fairly common plant growing from 10 - 30cm in grassy places, disturbed ground on poor but dry soils. |
9th June 2015, river promenade, Lancaster, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Flowers in globular clusters, leaves in triples. |
9th June 2015, river promenade, Lancaster, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Growing with the purplish Ivy-leaved Toadflax. |
9th June 2015, river promenade, Lancaster, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Flowers pale yellow. |
9th June 2015, river promenade, Lancaster, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Flowers grow near the summit of each branch. |
9th June 2015, river promenade, Lancaster, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Leaflets 6-10mm long and finely-toothed in triplets, the middle one being on a longer petiole (stalk) which is over 1.5mm long. |
9th June 2015, river promenade, Lancaster, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Leaves lacking a mucro point at the tip. Leaves hairless apart from perhaps some on the underside along the mid-rib. Young not yet developed flowers are green - there are three at the top right. |
9th June 2015, river promenade, Lancaster, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Flower heads between 8-15mm across, (larger than the 5-9mm of the similar Lesser Trefoil) |
9th June 2015, river promenade, Lancaster, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Flower heads composed of not less than 20 pale yellow flowers. Individual floret corollas are 4-7mm long |
9th June 2015, river promenade, Lancaster, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Individual flowers unlike those of the similar Black Medick (which has 20-40 flowers in smaller heads between 3-6mm across). The flowers are the reverse way around to those of Black Medick and have the banner (standard) uppermost, in a shallow upturned V-shape, (and curling downwards on the lower flowers and even more so on the fruiting heads - the 'hops'). |
9th June 2015, river promenade, Lancaster, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
The leaves can redden when stressed by too much sun or heat. Stems densely hairy. |
9th June 2015, river promenade, Lancaster, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Stems densely hairs with shortish hairs. Without hairs on top surface of the leaf (nor on the underside apart from perhaps a few on the mid-rib). |
5th July 2014, Wigan Wallgate Rly Stn, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Flowers turning to 'hop' fruits from the bottom upwards. |
5th July 2014, Wigan Wallgate Rly Stn, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Half-way there. |
11th June 2016, Cronton ex-Colliery reserve, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Turning to fruit. |
5th July 2014, Wigan Wallgate Rly Stn, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Almost ripe. |
Not to be confused semantically with Hop (Humulus lupus) (from which it derives its name for the fruiting heads resemble hops), nor with Bird's-Foot-Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), Easily confused with : Black Medick, but Black Medick has a minute point at the end of the leaf, and generally has more fine teeth on the edges. Black Medick is readily distinguished by its very small curled-up black seed pods.
Many similarities to : other Hop Trefoils and Medicks such as Lesser Trefoil, No relation to : Hops [a plant with similar name but in a totally different family].
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Trifolium | campestre | ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ | Fabaceae |
Trifolium (Clovers) |
Pea Family [Fabaceae] |