Haresfoot clover, Pie de liebre

Description:

Small erect herbaceous annual, 10-40 cm tall. Like all clovers, it has leaves divided into three sessile leaflets, which are slender, 1-2 cm long and 3-5 mm broad, and sometimes edged with small hairs and finely serrated. The leaves have a pair of stipules at the base, often tipped in red. The flowers are grouped in a dense inflorescence 2-3 cm long and 1-1.5 cm broad; each flower is 4-5 mm long, rosy white in colour, and especially characterised by the many silky white hairs which tip the five sepals, which are much larger than the petals. These hairs, along with the more or less oblong form of the inflorescence, are the inspiration for the common name. Pollination is carried out by bees, or via autogamy, since the plant is hermaphroditic, and the flowering season is from mid-spring to late summer. The fruit is a small pod containing a single seed. Like most legumes, it fixes nitrogen, making it valued on low fertility soils for the benefit it gives to other crop species in supplying nitrogen. It is also grazed by sheep and goats.

Habitat:

Spotted at a clearing in a Holm oak and pine tree forest

Notes:

Camera Model: NIKON D300. Exposure Time: 1/400 sec.; f/10; ISO Speed Rating: 400. Exposure Bias: 0 EV. Focal Length: 90.0 mm.