Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

White Clover
Trifolium repens
Pea family (Fabaceae)

From city parks to front lawns to mountain to pastures, White Clover makes itself known and at home. It spreads on rooting in large mats across the ground and puts out abundant, long lasting, sweet smelling flowers on erect or reclining stems. The flower stems are often very leggy with few that are easily stripped off allowing the long flower stems to be tied together to make floral necklaces and bracelets. Horses, cattle, and many wild critters forgo the jewelry and munch on the entire plant. Bees adore the plant. Trifolium repens is a native of Eurasia but it is now found in all temperate climates. Linnaeus named this and species in 1753. "Repens" is Latin for "creeping."


©2010 José María Escolano

Description

plants, throughout or with scattered hairs, stems branching from base to 12" long, caulescent, creeping and often rooting at , rarely erect. long. up to almost 1" long slight serrations to nearly with a white blotch near the base. Flowerheads to 1" across, with long . white with a green tube with a red or purple spot. to 1/3" long, in age, white or pink tinged. 4-5 seeded.

Field Marks

Creeping mass of a myriad of ball headed white flowers on long stems.

© Al Schneider

node -- The point at which there is attached growth, as in the place where each leaf is attached.

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

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

meadow -- Large grass and wildflower filled area with few, if any, trees.

corolla -- The name for all the petals of a flower taken together.

reflexed -- bent sharply back or down.

stolon -- A slender modified stem running along the ground, rooting at the tip, and sprouting new plants. Strawberries have stolons. Also called runners.

calyx -- the sepals of a flower, typically forming a whorl that encloses the petals and forms a protective layer around a flower in bud.

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

globose -- Shaped like a ping pong ball, only smaller.

petiole -- the stalk of a leaf.

genus -- A subdivision of a botanical Family in which all members have a significant number of similar characteristics.

glabrous -- smooth, glossy, having no bristles or hair-like structures. Bald.

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

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.