Trifolium glomeratum L.
clustered clover
Annual; stems glabrous, procumbent or ascending, not rooting at nodes. Lvs ± glabrous; petioles c. 5-20 mm long; leaflets obovate, acute to obtuse, mucronate, cuneate at base, finely serrate, c. 3-12 mm long; lateral veins thin and straight or slightly recurved and thickened toward leaflet margin; petiolules < 1 mm long, ± equal; stipules ovate, acuminate. Infls axillary, spicate, globose, sessile or shortly pedunculate, mostly remote; fls numerous, sessile or subsessile, remaining ± erect at fruiting; bracts subtending fls free. Calyx glabrous, with 10-12 very distinct veins, not inflated at fruiting; throat open, glabrous; calyx teeth subequal, < corolla, ovate, acuminate, < tube, strongly recurved at fruiting; sinuses acute. Corolla pink to purplish, persistent, 3-5 mm long. Pod glabrous, straight, < calyx, 2-3 mm long, 1-2-seeded; seeds c. 1 mm diam.
N.: locally common throughout but not collected from Taranaki; S.: Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago; Ch.
S. and W. Europe, Asia Minor, Caucasia, N. Africa 1870
Dry waste places and pasture, cultivated land, coastal areas.
FL Nov-Mar.
Clustered clover is distinguished from T. cernuum by the subsessile fls. It differs from the related T. retusum in the shorter calyx teeth and usually in having sessile heads (Plate 13). In most N.Z. material of T. glomeratum the heads are sessile, although in some naturalised plants they are shortly pedunculate.
