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The aim of the study was to determine the distribution of annual haresfoot clover (Trifolium arvense) in a depleted indigenous short tussock grassland catchment in the dry sub-humid MacKenzie Basin, South Island, New Zealand. Haresfoot clover was present on all landscapes, and widely distributed on lower sunny aspects, suggesting that it is an important component of the nitrogen cycle in these environments even in the absence of fertiliser application. The study was conducted during an atypically moist summer when a bloom of the annual clover occurred. Nitrogen inputs will vary with landscape and spring/summer rainfall and it is likely that significant pulses occur in wetter years.