白车轴草 bai che zhou cao

Perennial herbs, stoloniferous, glabrous to glabrescent. Stems 10-30 cm, prostrate, rooting at nodes. Leaves long petio­late, palmately 3-foliolate; stipules ovate-lanceolate, membra­nous, with veins green or red, sheathing at base, apex subulate; petiolule 1-1.5 mm; leaflets obovate to ovate, 6-20(-40) × 8-16(-25) mm, lateral veins 13 pairs, prominent on both surfaces, base cuneate, apex emarginate to broadly rounded. Flowers 20-50(-80), in terminal, globose umbels, 1.5-4 cm; peduncle equal to or longer than petiole; involucre absent; bracts lanceolate-ov­ate, membranous; pedicels 2-5 mm, reflexed after anthesis. Ca­lyx 3-5 mm, veins 6-10; teeth shorter than tube. Corolla white, rarely pink-tinged, 5-12 mm, fragrant; standard elliptic, ca. 2 × wings and keel. Ovary sessile; ovules 3 or 4. Legume linear-oblong. Seeds 2-4, ovoid to reniform. Fl. and fr. May-Oct.

Cultivated, escaped, and naturalized; grasslands, ravines, road­sides. Throughout China [native to N Africa, C and SW Asia, and Eu­rope].