Trifolium angustifolium

Narrow-leaved clover ( Trifolium angustifolium)

The Narrow-leaved clover ( Trifolium angustifolium ) is a perennial plant of the genus clover ( Trifolium ) in the legume family ( Fabaceae ). He is placed in the genus Trifolium in the section, subsection Angustifolia.

Description

The Narrow-leaved clover is an annual, herbaceous plant that reaches the heights of growth between 15 and 50 centimeters. The stems are erect, stiff, branching from the base and hairy fitting. The side shoots are shorter and ascending.

The three-part leaves are in the lower part of the plant long, stalked in the upper short. The stipules are fused about halfway with the petioles. The free part is lanceolate with many distinct veins and pfriemlicher tip.

The leaflets are 3-5 inches long and 0.2 to 0.4 inches wide. They are usually longer than the petioles. They are narrowly lanceolate to linear, pointed at the upper leaves, blunt at the bottom. Both leaf pages are hairy pressed. The leaf margin is entire or almost entire.

The Narrow-leaved clover blooms from March to July. The capitate crowded inflorescences are cylindrical or cone-shaped ears. They are 3-8 inches long and consist of 1 to 1.3 centimeters long butterfly flowers.

The cup has ten nerves and a tube- to bell-shaped form and is covered with appressed to projecting, stiff hairs that grow from tubercles. The calyx teeth are subulate - bristle- shaped with sharp, in the fruit ripening stiff and stabbing bald top. The bottom is longer than the upper one. The crown is pink to purple and so long as the calyx teeth or very little longer.

In the single-seeded fruit ripening to ovate, membranous pods form with cartilage- like seeds lid (operculum ). They mature in the fully closed calyx tube. The calyx teeth are from a star. The seed is ovoid and light brown in color.

The chromosome number is 2n = 16 or 14

Occurrence

The Narrow-leaved clover is used in all countries of the Mediterranean area before except for the Sinai Peninsula. To the north it reaches the southern edge of the Alps, Romania and the former Czechoslovakia. In the West, they settled on all the islands of the Canary Islands and the Archipelago of Madeira and the Azores on all islands except Graciosa, Flores and Corvo. In the east it occurs in the Caucasus countries and in northern Iraq, and Iran. It is firmly naturalized in Chile and southern Australia, possibly in New Zealand, California and Oregon. This clover colonized vegetation gaps and open shelves in dry meadow and cultivated land at altitudes up to 1300 meters and preferably rather base -poor soils.

System

The species name Trifolium angustifolium was first published in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus in Species Plantarum. The Narrow-leaved clover is placed in the genus Trifolium in the section, subsection Angustifolia.