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HARE'S-FOOT TREFOIL
Trifolium arvense
Family LEGUMINOSAE
To be found in cornfields, dry pastures or on sandy banks. The Hare's-foot may be taken as the type of a small and distinct group of Clovers, with the flower-heads of cylindrical form.
It is a downy annual, growing to about a foot high, and its general appearance is delicate and pretty.
The many, almost erect branching stems are clothed with short hairs and have rather distant leaves of three slender leaflets, a half to three-quarters of an inch long. The leaf-stalk is provided with a pair of large stipules ending in long bristly points.
The pinky-white flowers are very small and numerous, gathered in very soft and feathery heads, a half to one inch long, on lengthening stalks. The bristly appearance of the flowerheads is due to the fine hairy teeth of the calyx projecting beyond the small corolla.
The flowering period is from July to September.
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