Photographs: Rock Island, Co. Cork

Bird's-foot Ornithopus perpusillus Crúba éin Family: Fabaceae Flowering time: May-August. Annual. Native. Usually 2-6 tiny white-cream flowers with pink-red veins in each flower head. The seed pods are curved, beaked and constricted with 4-9 segments and slightly resemble a birds foot. A downy or hairy plant, the pinnate leaves with oval-oblong leaflets. More/less prostrate and spreading but size very variable, stems can be 2-40cm long. Rare in Ireland on dry sandy, open ground, usually near the coast. Very scattered distribution with most records from the south-east

Bird's-foot, Ornithopus perpusillus, Crúba éin