Trifolium echinatum, Bieb.

90. T. echinatum Bieb. View in CoL , FI. Taur.-Cauc. 2: 216 (1808)

{ T. supinum Savi ).

Annual; stems 10-60 cm, procumbent or ascending, sparsely to densely hairy or glabrous. Leaflets 8-25x4-12 mm, obovate or oblanceolate; stipules short. Heads 8-15 mm in flower, ovoid or globose; peduncles 2O-5O(-8O) mm. Fruiting calyx with tube 1-5-2 mm, campanulate or obconical, sparsely hairy or glabrous, the furrows between the 10 veins not reaching the widened mouth of the tube; teeth linear-subulate, 1-veined or 3-veined only at the base, stiff and spinose, the lowest much longer than the others and twice as long as the tube. Corolla 8-12 mm, pink or cream, at least twice as long as the calyx. Legume included. Grassy, often damp places. Balkan peninsula extending to Italy and S. Romania. Al Bu G r It Ju Rm Si Tu.

Very variable in habit, height, indumentum and length of the calyx-teeth.

T. constantinopolitanum Ser. in DC., Prodr. 2: 193 (1825), is a plant of doubtful identity and affinity, variously treated as identical with or as a variety of 88, or as a subspecies of 90. Plants from Bulgaria, N. Greece and Turkey-in-Europe so treated are said to have stems with patent hairs, obovate leaflets, calyx-tube somewhat constricted at the apex, the lowest calyxtooth scarcely longer than the tube, and corolla pale yellow. The legume is included in the calyx-tube as in 90 and not exserted as in 88.