Common name:
Common bird's-foot trefoil
Family:
Scientific name:
Lotus corniculatus
Main flower color:
Range:
All of the UK
Height:
Up to 40 cm
Habitat:
Grasslands, roadsides, generally dry places
Flowers:
In clusters of between two and eight heads. Flowers are red in bud, yellow when open (and around 15 mm long), the banner petal crossed by red veins. The calyx, mostly hairless, has five lobes, shorter than the tube, with the upper pair at an angle of 90 degrees of more. Flowers are held on a hairless stalk rising several cm above the leaves
Fruit:
Narrow pods, ageing to reddish brown
Leaves:
Pinnate, with three oval leaflets at the tip and another pair a little lower down, all glabrous apart from a few short hairs on the margins
Season:
May to September
Rarity:
★★★★★
