Trifolium cernuum Brot.
drooping-flowered clover
Annual; stems glabrous, prostrate, not rooting at nodes. Lvs glabrous; petioles c. 5-40 mm long; leaflets obovate, mostly obtuse or somewhat acute, mucronate, cuneate at base, finely serrate, c. 3-10 mm long; lateral veins somewhat recurved and thickened toward leaflet margin; petiolules < 1 mm long, ± equal; stipules ovate, acuminate. Infls axillary, racemose, globose, < lvs, at least some infls with a distinct peduncle, others subsessile; peduncles < 0.5 mm diam.; fls numerous (rarely as few as 6 and umbellate), distinctly recurved at fruiting; pedicel c. 2 mm long; bracts subtending fls free. Calyx ± glabrous or sparsely hairy, 10-veined, not inflated at fruiting; throat open, usually sparsely hairy; calyx teeth somewhat unequal, narrowly triangular, recurved at fruiting but not at flowering; upper 2 teeth longer, < or ± = corolla; upper teeth = or < tube; sinuses acute. Corolla pink, persistent, 3-4 mm long. Pod glabrous, straight, < calyx, 2-3 mm long, 2-3-seeded; seeds c. 1 mm diam.
N.: occasionally to locally common throughout, more common in Wellington Province; S.: locally common in Marlborough, collected once from Christchurch; Ch.
S.W. Europe, N. Africa 1940
Dry waste places, depleted pasture.
FL Oct-May.
T. cernuum is similar to T. retusum but is distinguished by the prostrate habit and more diffuse heads. It has been previously known in N.Z. as T. parviflorum.
