Aphanes microcarpa

Aphanes microcarpa, the slender or small-fruited parsley piert, is a tiny annual herb of the rose family (Rosaceae), native to western and central Europe and naturalised elsewhere. It is a low, much-branched, softly hairy plant only a few centimetres high, forming small spreading tufts or mats on the ground. The small fan-shaped leaves are divided into narrow, finger-like lobes and are subtended by conspicuous leafy stipules that partly enclose the minute flowers. The flowers are inconspicuous and apetalous, green and clustered in the leaf axils against the stipules, and are followed by very small one-seeded fruits, those of this species being notably smaller than in the closely related common parsley piert. It is a plant of dry, open, sandy or gravelly ground, arable fields, paths, walls and other bare disturbed habitats on acidic soils. It is a segregate of the Aphanes arvensis aggregate and is easily overlooked because of its small size.