Hippocrepis ciliata Willd.

Family: LEGUMINOSAE

Genus: Hippocrepis

Sinònims: Hippocrepis multisiliquosa L. subsp. ciliata (Willd.) Maire

Catalan common name: Desferracavalls. Herba del ferro. L´esferracavalls.

Spanish common name: Hierba de herradura.

Province distribution: Alacant. Balearic Islands. Barcelona. Castelló. Girona. Tarragona. València.

Distribution in the islands: Mallorca. Menorca. Ibiza. Formentera.

General distribution (Phytogeography): Mediterranean

IUCN Category: LCLeast concern

Flowering time: JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Life-forms: Terophyte.

Habitats: Cultivated fields, path and road sides, disturbed zones. Therophytic calicole fields. Therophytics communities.

Characteristics: A small annual herbaceous plant that lives in wastelands and clearings of garrigue. The leaves are divided into many folioles, all of them paired, with the exception of that of the apex, which is solitary. The flowers are yellow in colour and emerge from the top of the pedicel. The fruit is the part most characteristic of this species, a legume that develop into all sorts of choked, u-shaped curves. This species differs from others of the Hippocrepis genus as the legume is arched in a manner that the seeds are located in the dorsal or external part of then legume, while Hippocrepis multisiliquosa, which is very similar, the fruit is arched in the reverse so that its seeds are ventral or facing towards the interior of the legume.