Common Name: LEGUME FAMILY
Habit: Annual to tree. Leaf: generally alternate, generally compound, generally stipuled, generally entire, pinnately veined Inflorescence: generally raceme, spike, umbel or head; or flowers 1--few in axils. Flower: generally bisexual, generally bilateral; hypanthium 0 or flat to tubular; sepals generally 5, generally fused; petals generally 5, free, fused, or lower 2 +- united into keel (see 3, Key to Groups, for banner, wings); stamens 10 or many (or [1], 5, 6, 7, 9), free or fused or 10 with 9 filaments at least partly fused, 1 (uppermost) free; pistil 1, ovary superior, generally 1-chambered, ovules 1--many, style, stigma 1. Fruit: legume, including a stalk-like base (above receptacle) or not. Seed: 1--many, often +- reniform, generally hard, smooth.
Genera In Family: +- 730 genera, 19400 species: worldwide; with grasses, requisite in agriculture, most natural ecosystems. Many cultivated, most importantly Arachis, peanut; Glycine, soybean; Phaseolus, beans; Medicago, alfalfa; Trifolium, clovers; many orns. Note: Unless stated otherwise, fruit length including stalk-like base, number of 2° leaflets is per 1° leaflet. Upper suture of fruit adaxial, lower abaxial. Anthyllis vulneraria L. evidently a waif, a contaminant of legume seed from Europe. Laburnum anagyroides Medik., collected on Mount St. Helena in 1987, may be naturalized. Ceratonia siliqua L., carob tree (Group 2), differs from Gleditsia triacanthos L. in having evergreen (vs deciduous) leaves that are 1-pinnate (vs 1-pinnate on spurs on old stems, 2-pinnate on new stems) with 2--5(8) (vs 7--17) 1° leaflets, commonly cultivated, now naturalized in southern California. Aeschynomene rudis Benth. , Halimodendron halodendron (Pall.) Voss (possibly extirpated), Lens culinaris Medik. are agricultural weeds. Caragana arborescens Lam. only cult. Ononis alopecuroides L. , Sphaerophysa salsula (Pall.) DC. all evidently extirpated. Cercidium moved to Parkinsonia; Chamaecytisus to Cytisus; Psoralidium lanceolatum to Ladeania.
eFlora Treatment Author: Martin F. Wojciechowski, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Martin F. Wojciechowski, Thomas J. Rosatti.

Common Name: CLOVER
Habit: Annual, perennial herb, unarmed. Leaf: generally palmately compound; stipules conspicuous, partly fused to petiole, generally papery or membranous; leaflets generally 3, occasionally 5--9, +- toothed or wavy. Inflorescence: raceme (generally umbel-like), head, or spike, axillary or terminal, generally many-flowered, generally involucred, generally peduncled; inflorescence bracts 0 or forming vestigial ring or involucre; flower bracts present or not. Flower: generally spreading to erect, generally becoming reflexed; corolla generally purple to pale lavender, occasionally yellow, persistent after flower; 9 filaments fused, 1 free. Fruit: generally indehiscent but generally breaking, short, plump, generally enclosed in corolla; base generally stalk-like. Seed: 1--6.
Species In Genus: +- 300 species: temps, tropical mountains, northern hemisphere, South America, Africa; foodplant for lepidopterans, cultivated as green manure in crop rotation, fodder. Etymology: (Latin: 3 leaves)
eFlora Treatment Author: Michael A. Vincent & Duane Isely
Reference: Ellison et al. 2006 Molec Phylogen Evol 39:688--705; Vincent 2009 Madroño 56:208
Unabridged Reference: Gillett 1980 Canad J Bot 58:1425--1448; Zohary & Heller 1984 Genus Trifolium