Biserrula pelecinus

Biserrula pelecinus, commonly called biserrula or hatchet vetch (now sometimes placed in Astragalus as A. pelecinus), is a slender, prostrate to decumbent annual legume in the family Fabaceae native to the Mediterranean basin, North Africa, southern Europe and southwestern Asia, where it occurs on dry, sandy or stony soils in open grassy slopes, fallow fields and roadside banks. It typically grows 10-40 cm long, with much-branched, finely hairy stems radiating from a slender taproot. The pinnate leaves are 3-8 cm long, bearing 9-15 pairs of small, opposite, oblong-obovate leaflets, each 5-12 mm long. Small papilionaceous flowers 5-7 mm long, pale blue, violet or whitish with darker veining, are borne in compact axillary clusters of 4-12 on slender peduncles. The fruit is unmistakable: a flat, elongate, two-rowed legume 1.5-3 cm long, deeply lobed along both upper and lower margins so as to resemble a double saw blade or hatchet, the feature reflected in its scientific name. The species has been developed as a hardy, deep-rooted annual pasture legume for Mediterranean-climate agriculture in Australia and elsewhere.