Flowers and leaves. Photo by unknown photographer, Wikipedia, Unterfranken, Germany

Seeding plant. Australian Plant Image Index, photo: Murray Fagg, about 35km north of Yalgoo, WA

Flowering plant. Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Common Name

Woolly Burr Medic; Little Medic; Small Burr Medic; Small Woolly Burr Medic

Family

Fabaceae

Notes

Introduced annual forb, prostrate or to 20cm tall.  Leaves alternating along the stems, composed of three leaflets, each 0.5-1.4cm long, 2-8mm wide, flat, hairy when young, edges smooth or toothed, notched at the tip and with a small straight point.  Flowers yellow.  Flowers pea-shaped, with five petals, two almost joined together.  Flowers in stalked clusters of 1-6 flowers, the stalks arising from the bases of the leaves. Burrs hairless or hairy, with many hooked spines.

Description and photo (page 402) and line drawing of burr (Fig. 51d page 403) in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales

PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Medicago~minima