Ononis ornithopodioides L.

Spice Fruit In the field

Family: LEGUMINOSAE

Genus: Ononis

Catalan common name: Peu de pardal.

Province distribution: Alacant. Balearic Islands. València.

Distribution in the islands: Mallorca. Ibiza. Formentera.

General distribution (Phytogeography): South Mediterranean

IUCN Category: LCLeast concern

Flowering time: JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Life-forms: Terophyte.

Habitats: Cultivated fields, path and road sides, disturbed zones. Pine wood and shrubland with rosemary and thyme garigue. Therophytic calicole fields. Therophytics communities.

Characteristics: An erect herb with trifoliate leaves, with dentate leaflets as happens in species the Ononis genus; the plant is covered in glandous hairs which make it sticky to the touch. The flowers are yellow, the petals are shorter than the sepals, the leaf-stalk which carries the flowers continues in a long awn. The fruit is very characteristic, it is torulose, that is the seeds leave a mark in the fruit's surface; this feature allows it to be distinguished from Ononis pubescens, which is similar and lives in the same habitats. It flowers in spring.