General: Annual herb from a taproot; stems prostrate to creeping and often rooting at the nodes, hairy.
Leaves: Alternate or clustered, palmately compound; leaflets 3, egg- to heart-shaped, rounded and notched at the tip, 10-15 mm long; stipules wide, tapered.
Flowers: Inflorescence a dense, rather long-stalked bur-like head, about 1 cm wide, of several to many pea-like flowers, the outer flowers 2 to 8 and fertile, the inner numerous and sterile, the heads lacking involucres, on rather long stalks that in fruit curve and grow into the ground; corollas white or cream-coloured to pinkish, 8-13 mm long; fertile calyces 5-6 mm long, 1/2 as long as the corollas, the teeth long, hairy, bristle-like; sterile calyces stalk-like with 4-5 spreading bristles at the tip, elongating and curving backward to envelop the fruits and form a bur.
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.
Mesic to dry pastures, roadsides and coastal bluffs in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; infrequent on SE Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and the lower mainland; introduced from Europe.
