Also known as Bird's-foot Trefoil, this much loved little yellow pea-flowered perennial is a wildflower which brightens up roadsides, sandhills, stone-walls and most grassy places. It is usually hairless with solid stems which carry an umbel of 2-7 flowers (each 10-16mm long) which are bright yellow, sometimes tinged or streaked with red or orange. Wasps, bees and butterflies are attracted to this plant which flowers from June to September. The leaves are alternate and pinnate. It is the distinctive seedpod which gives the plant its name. The seeds are contained in slender pods which when ripe resemble a bird's foot. This is the principal larval foodplant of the Common Blue Butterfly. Bird's-foot Trefoil is a native plant and it belongs to the family Fabaceae.
I first identified this plant in Roundwood, Co Wicklow in 1977 and photographed it in Allihies, Co Cork (1977), Cullenstown, Co Wexford (2000) and Glenmalure, Co Wicklow (2006)
If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre
