Annual scorpion-vetch

Coronilla scorpioides is a slender annual herb of the Fabaceae family, growing 10 to 50 centimetres tall, with smooth, glabrous, glaucous, somewhat fleshy stems branching from the base. The pinnate leaves are characteristically reduced and rather succulent, with only three leaflets: a large, rounded to obovate terminal leaflet 1 to 3 centimetres long, and two much smaller, basally placed leaflets that almost clasp the stem and may resemble stipules, giving the foliage a distinctive appearance. The inflorescences are long-stalked, axillary umbels of two to five small yellow pea flowers, each 4 to 8 millimetres long, the standard often marked with fine reddish veins. The fruit, which gives the species its name, is a narrow, curved, segmented loment 2 to 5 centimetres long, breaking transversely into single-seeded joints when ripe, and resembling a scorpion's tail. Flowering occurs in spring. Native to the Mediterranean basin from Iberia and North Africa to the Middle East, the species is a common weed of fields, fallows, vineyards, olive groves and dry open ground.