Tomcat clover

Trifolium willdenovii, commonly called tomcat clover, is a slender annual herb in the Fabaceae family, native to western North America from British Columbia south through California and into northern Mexico, with disjunct populations in South America. It typically grows 10 to 60 cm tall with erect or ascending, mostly glabrous stems that branch from the base. The leaves are alternate and trifoliate; each leaflet is narrowly oblanceolate to linear, 1 to 4 cm long, with a sharply serrate or spinulose margin and a tapered base, giving the foliage a finer texture than most clovers. The stipules are conspicuous, often deeply cut into bristly teeth. Flower heads are dense, hemispherical, 1 to 2 cm across, subtended by a deeply lobed, spiny-toothed involucre that persists in fruit. Individual flowers are small pea-flowers, pink to lavender or violet, fading paler with age. Fruits are small two-seeded legume pods enclosed in the persistent calyx. It grows in open grasslands, vernal pool margins, meadows and disturbed ground.