General: Annual herb from fibrous roots; stems erect to ascending, 10-40 cm tall, branching, glabrous.
Leaves: Alternate, palmately compound; leaflets 3, oblanceolate to egg-shaped, 5-25 mm long, finely bristle-toothed along the edges; stipules egg- to lance-shaped, somewhat papery, 1/4 to 1/2 the length of the leaflets, the free tips spiny-toothed.
Flowers: Inflorescence a dense, globe-shaped, long-stalked, axillary head of 5 to 30 pea-like flowers, the heads cradled in a conspicuous, bowl-shaped, papery, shallowly lobed, finely bristle-toothed involucre; corollas white, cream or pinkish, 5-11 mm long; calyces about the same length as the corollas, glabrous, veined, the tube membranous, the teeth longer than the tube, bristle-like, all or the lower 3 irregularly branched.
Fruits: Pods, oblong, glabrous, short-stalked; seeds 1 or 2.
If more than one illustration is
available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two
subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below.
Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.