Sainfoin

When ripe the seed-vessel splits into two Sainfoin valves, and the numerous seeds drop out. In stature the plant varies greatly, according to the position in which it grows on a gravel path being only two or three Sainfoin inches high, whilst in a garden border it may be almost as many feet. Flowering throughout the summer. All around islands, wherever the shore is sandy or pebbly, this common Sainfoin perennial often forms extensive carpets, rendered somewhat conspicuous by the dark, shining green colour of the fleshy leaves and stems. It has a creeping rootstock from which emerge forking stems Sainfoin that lie on the ground, whilst their branches rise to a height of only six or eight inches.
The fiowering-stem may reach a length of three feet, bearing erect, soli tary, bright yellow fiowers on lon g branching footstalks. The calyx has five long, pointed lobes, with Sainfoin five pointed bracts. The five petals spread themselves out flat, the calyx lobes showing green between them. The crowd of stamens may not easily be numbered; the carpels, too, are Sainfoin numerous, and develop into a head of nutlets, each with a sharp, curved hook at its tip, by which they catch in fur and feather, and so get distributed by Sainfoin bird and beast. Flowering chiefiy between June and August.