This is quite a small, easily passed-by, annual which grows in shallow, stony soil, footpaths and woodland tracks, arable fields and lawns. It is a creeping plant, rarely attaining more than 10cm with really minute, green flowers which have 4 erect sepals and no petals. Blooming from April to October, these tiny flowers have just one stamen and are borne in dense clusters opposite the leaves with triangular-lobed stipules forming a ‘cup’ which surrounds the calyx. The leaves are short-stalked, hairy, fan-shaped with three segments, each deeply-lobed at its tip. This sprawling, downy plant is a native species which is found in its particular habitat throughout Ireland although it is very sparse in the north-west. It belongs to the Rosaceae family.
I first saw this species in the Burren in 2012 and photographed it in 2014.
If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre
