Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Trifolium vesiculosum var. vesiculosum
Common name
A Clover
Family
Fabaceae
Where found
Grown as a forage crop. Occasionally naturalised. Scattered, mainly on the Western Slopes.
Notes
Introduced annual herb to 0.8 m high. Calyx teeth spiny, turned back at the seeding stage. Stems angled, hairless, and often reddish. Leaves alternating up the stems, compound, with 3 leaflets, each 1.5–4 cm long, 5–15 mm wide, hairless, margins toothed, tips usually with a small abrupt point, surfaces prominently veined on the lower surface, often with a pale arrow-shaped spot on the upper surface; stipules membranous, and prominently nerved. Flower heads many-flowered, globular, becoming cylindrical, 30–60 mm long, 25–35 mm wide. Individual flowers white, or pink or mauve to purple, 12–15 mm long, pea shaped, with 5 petals, 2 joined together to form the keel, persistent at the seeding stage. Flowers spring-summer.
Varieties not recognised in NSW.
PlantNET description (as Trifolium vesiculosum): http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Trifolium~vesiculosum (accessed 3 May 2021)
This identification key and fact sheets are available as a free mobile application:
