Family |
Fabaceae
Trifolium eriosphaerum
Boiss.
Leb. Syr. Pal.
Trifolium eriosphaerum Boiss.
First published in Diagn. Pl. Orient. 9: 25 (1849).
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, pp. 288–289, Pl. CX, 1; 1970)
Description
Life-form & habit: Annual herb with spreading stems 10–50 cm long, clothed in close-lying stiff hairs.
Leaves: Very shortly stalked, with greyish, triangular-obovate leaflets rounded at the tip. Stipules ovate and pointed.
Inflorescence & flowers: Heads on stalks equalling or slightly exceeding the leaves, becoming somewhat spreading or bent downwards. Each head has 5–6 fertile flowers in a single row. Calyx white and woolly, with thread-like teeth about as long as its tube; corolla purple.
Fruit: Smooth oblong pod with a short pointed tip, enclosed in the calyx. As flowering ends, the developing sterile flowers form a dense white woolly covering around the head.
Flowering and habitat
Phenology: Flowering March–May.
Habitat & elevation: Grassy places, fields and open woodland.
Distribution
Lebanese distribution: Below Sultan Yaaqoub, Deir el Aachayer, Masnaa, Kfar Zabad and Kfertay.
Syrian distribution: Wadi el Qarn, Aleppo and west of Aleppo, Tell Aqibrin, the Quneitra road, Massade, Khabab, Qanaouat, Tell Ahmar and south of Daraa.
Native range: Lebanon-Syria, Palestine.