Botanical name: Lotus garcinii    Family: Fabaceae (Pea family)
Synonyms: Lotus pumilus, Lotus stocksii, Aspalathus persica

Desert Trefoil is a perennial herb, woody at the base, branches many, silky-velvet-hairy. Leaves are 3 or 5-foliolate, leaflets 5-9 mm long, 4-5 mm broad, obovate-wedge-shaped, blunt or retuse at tip, grey-velvet-hairy on both sides or hairless above, hairy below. Flowers are borne singly in leaf-axils, stalkless. Sepal-cup is 5-8 mm long, velvet-hairy, teeth twice as long as the tube. Flowers are reddish, slightly protruding. Fruit is 9-12 mm long, hairless or velvet-hairy, linear, straight, about 6-seeded. Desert Trefoil is found in Somalia, Iran, Oman, Egypt, Arabian Peninsula, Pakistan to Western India. Flowering: October-November.

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The flower labeled Desert Trefoil is ...