Three heart shaped leaflets, toothed near the apex, generally with dark blotches in the center. Hairy stems are ascending and are 4 to 16 inches long. Fruit pods are spirally coiled and prickled with hairs between prickles. This plant is rare.
Herbage with soft hairs; stipules (leaf-like appendages at the base of leaf stems) narrow. Pods spirally coiled, several seeded, prickly.
Habitat
Turf, roadsides, fields, grasslands, pastures, agricultural sites (especially alfalfa fields) and other disturbed sites.
Flower Characteristics
Small, bright yellow flowers are clustered at the stem tips.
Leaf and Stem Characteristics
Cotyledons (seed leaves) are oblong. The first true leaf is rounded. Later leaves are composed of three leaflets and have a clover-like shape.
Fruit and Seed Characteristics
Fruits are the most distinctive character, being spirally wound and armed with what appear to be small fishhooks. The pods are mostly brown, hairless and smooth.
Several yellowish or tan, kidney-shaped seeds are contained in each pod.