Trifolium rueppellianum Fresen.

Annual; stems glabrous, erect or, less often, prostrate, not rooting at the nodes.. Leaves glabrous or nearly so; stipules up to 15 mm. long, with 3–4 nerves, united to petiole for ±two-thirds of their length, the tips entire, acuminate; petiole only a few mm. long and sometimes wholly adnate to the stipules in the upper leaves, up to 5 cm. long in the lower leaves; leaflets oval, oblong or obovate, rarely broadly lanceolate, less than 3 times as long as wide, rounded, truncate or less often emarginate at the tip, rarely acute, up to 24 mm. long and 14 mm. wide; teeth strongly developed, up to 0·5 mm. long, often with subulate tips; main nerves 10–15 on each side, at 40–50° with the midrib.. Inflorescences ± globose, typically 15–30-flowered and ± 17 mm. across, sometimes few-flowered in stunted plants especially at high altitudes; peduncle pilose near the top, many times longer than the subtending petiole; bracts minute or linear-lanceolate, up to 3 mm. long; pedicel glabrous or pilose, up to 2 mm. long, shorter than the calyx-tube, suberect in fruit.. Calyx glabrous, except sometimes for a few hairs on the margin, the tube pale, rounded at the base, strongly 11-nerved, the com-missural nerves almost always undivided to the top; teeth abruptly narrowed near the base, subulate for most of their length, 2–5 mm. long, sometimes exceeding the corolla.. Corolla purple or rarely white; wings with a well-developed auricle.. Ovary glabrous; ovules 2–3, less often 4 or 5.. Pod 3–4 by ± 2 mm.. Seeds oval, brown, ± 1·5 by 1 mm.