General:
Annual herb from fibrous roots; stems 1 to many, ascending to erect, 5-35 cm tall, glabrous or sparsely glandular.

Leaves:
Alternate, palmately compound; leaflets 3, linear to narrowly oblanceolate, 5-25 mm long, fine-toothed to nearly entire; stipules narrowly egg-shaped, the margins jagged-toothed, 1/4 as long as the leaflets.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a small head, 3-12 mm wide, of 3 to 10 (15) pea-like flowers, the heads on long slender stalks and set in flat, wheel-like involucres, the involucres deeply but irregularly spiny-toothed to greatly reduced; corollas lavender with white tips, 4-8 mm long; calyces 4-7 mm long, the tube narrowly bell-shaped, 10-veined and deeply slit between the upper teeth, the teeth narrowly lanceolate, tapered to a sometimes forked bristle-tip.

Fruits:
Pods; seeds usually 2.

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

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.

Illustration Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Trifolium pauciflorum Nutt.
Trifolium variegatum var. pauciflorum (Nutt.) McDermott