Knotted Clover - Trifolium striatum

Low to short hairy plant with oval leaflets and oval, unstalked pinkish flower heads, usually single, sometimes in pairs. It may be upright or prostrate. Downy, inflated, red-ribbed calyx in fruit.

There are some similar rare clovers (e.g. T scabrum).  Strawberry Clover ( T fragiferum) and Reversed Clover (T resupinatum) have a calyx that is much more inflated in fruit.

Procumbent to erect, hairy, annual; with obovate leaves and sessile flowerheads. 

The County Recorder has asked for a specimen of this plant to be retained for verification

On well drained soils.

Flowers May to July.

Annual.

Widespread but local and often coastal in Britain.

Occasional in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 19 of the 617 tetrads.

In the current checklist (Jeeves 2011) it is listed as Native, occasional but nearly scarce.