Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Annual herbs with taproots.

Stems: Stems decumbent or weakly ascending, 1–4(–10) dm long, many-branched, internodes well–spaced, glabrous.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves compound. Alternate. Leaflets obovate, 5–10(–20) mm long, 3–10 mm wide. Apex mucronate. Margins serrulate. Veins conspicuous on lower surface. Lateral veins ending at margins. Petiolate. Stipules membranous, ovate, adnate to petioles ca. 1/2 their length, the distinct portion with a long subulate–setaceous tip.

Flowers: Flowers in heads, axillary, widely spaced, subglobose, 8–12 mm in diameter, sessile. Flowers papilionaceous; pedicels 0–0.3 mm long, bracts minute, bracteoles absent. Calyx tube 2.4–2.6 mm long, conspicuously 10–nerved, the throat open, sparsely pilose, the teeth subequal, deltate–ovate, slightly auriculate and overlapping at base, 1.6–1.9 mm long, spreading at right angles or somewhat recurved, conspicuously 3–nerved, and +/– with a few lateral nerves forming a weak reticulate pattern. Corolla pink, 4–5 mm long, exserted from calyx, persistent. Stamens 10; upper stamen distinct, the other 9 connate into a tube. Ovary superior.

Fruit: Pods oblong; included in calyx. Seeds (1)2; yellowish brown; ovoid; ca. 1 mm long.

Ploidy: 2n = 14; 16

Habitat: known to be naturalized in lawns at Makawao Intermediate School; Maui.

Elevation Range: