Trifolium angustifolium L.
narrow-leaved clover
Annual; stems densely clothed in appressed hairs, erect or ascending to erect, not rooting at nodes. Lvs sparsely to moderately hairy on petioles and undersurface of leaflets, glabrous to moderately hairy on uppersurface; petioles c. 10-50 mm long; leaflets linear-lanceolate, acute to acuminate, cuneate at base, entire, c. 20-70 mm long; lateral veins thin and straight to leaflet margin; petiolules up to c. 1 mm long, ± equal; stipules oblong, acuminate. Infls terminal, spicate, usually cylindric, sometimes ovoid, pedunculate, > subtending lf; fls numerous, sessile; bracts 0. Calyx densely hispid, with 10 indistinct veins, slightly inflated on all sides at fruiting; throat open, with a ring of hairs, closed by thickening at fruiting; calyx teeth unequal, narrowly lanceolate, spreading to recurved at fruiting; lower teeth > the other 4, just < or ± = corolla, > tube; upper teeth > or = tube; sinuses obtuse. Corolla pink, deciduous, (9)-10-12 mm long. Pod glabrous, straight, < calyx, 2-3 mm long, 1-seeded; seeds c. 2 mm diam.
N.: Waiharahara (N. Auckland), Auckland City, Tauranga, Te Kaha and Whitianga Bay (Bay of Plenty), Tokomaru Bay (Gisborne), Matapiro (Hawke's Bay), Mt Bruce (Wairarapa), Wellington City; S.: Lincoln, Fairlie.
C. and S. Europe to Caucasia and Iran, N. Africa 1940
Rare and local casual of waste places and cultivated land.
FL Nov-Apr.
T. angustifolium is easily distinguished from all other naturalised N.Z. clovers by the long, pink-flowered heads and long narrow lvs. N.Z. plants can be referred to the type var.
