Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Rocky Mountain Clover
Trifolium attenuatum
Pea family (Fabaceae)

Rocky Mountain Clover (Trifolium attenuatum) grows in eye-catching mats, often several feet in diameter but usually just a few inches high. Clustered flowers top a leafless stem that often droops to the ground and surrounds the circle of leaves which are often folded inward along the long axis and are a dusky, light green. This species is very similar to Whiproot Clover (Trifolium dasyphyllum) and, in fact, the two have sometimes been considered the same species. Rocky Mountain Clover could also be confused with Parry's Clover (Trifolium parryi) but the latter does not grow in spreading mats and flower stems stand strongly upright. Edward Greene (1843-1915) named this species. "Attenuatum" is Latin for "thin, weak," perhaps referring to the weak flower stem.


©2004 Al Schneider

Description

, / plant to 6" tall from woody branched (woody base of non-woody ). Leaf long. to over 1" long, narrow, often folded, . long. Flowerheads borne above the leaves but most often on the ground from the weight of the flowerhead. Flowers usually shades of pink. a pod.

Field Marks

Low, sprawling dense mat of leaves with fallen over flower stems topped with numerous tiny pink flowers.

© Al Schneider

An entire leaf has smooth edges. Not toothed or lobed.

A peduncle is a common stalk of a cluster of flowers.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

subalpine -- Just below the timberline.

caespitose -- Grass (or plants) growing in small dense clumps or tufts.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

acaulescent -- a plant that has no apparent stem, or at least none visible above ground.

petiole -- the stalk of a leaf.

caudex -- The woody stem base of some herbaceous perennials.

leaflets -- Each little leaf-like thing in a compound leaf is a leaflet.

alpine -- above the tree line. Thin soil, rocks, short growing season, frost, winter snow.