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Red Clover

Red Clover

Trifolium pratense

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How common: Very common

Alien species

Red Clover is a familiar clover with rounded pink to reddish flower heads and three-part leaves. It is native across much of Europe and parts of Asia and North Africa, and has spread widely with farming. You’ll often see it in grasslands and along roads, and it is also widely grown as animal fodder.

Did you know?

  • The leaves often show a pale V-shaped mark.
  • It’s a key nectar plant for bumblebees and helps enrich soil with nitrogen via bacteria on its roots.

About the species

Identification

Perennial herb 15–60 cm tall, with upright to rising, usually several, softly hairy stems. Leaves are in threes; each leaflet is oval (1–5 cm), slightly toothed and usually has a pale V-shaped mark. Flower heads are almost round (2–4 cm), one or sometimes two together, pink to red (rarely white). The small pea-like flowers stay on the head after blooming, which turns brown with age. Seed pods remain hidden inside the green cup at the base of each tiny flower. Similar zigzag clover is darker overall; its leaflets are narrower and lack pale marks. Flowers in Finland from June to August.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

meadow

Flowering

Jun–Aug

About the habitat

Open, sunny places such as meadows and pastures, field margins, roadsides, waste ground and forest edges; also on shores and rocky ground. Common across Finland, but rare in northernmost Lapland.

Sources

Photo: Robert Flogaus-Faust, CC BY 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trifolium pratense RF.jpg

Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Kaikki leviäimet, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39052

Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Kaikki versot, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39052

Text: Pinkka: Laaja maatalouslajintuntemus 4 op - Koppisiemeniset, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39052

Text: Pinkka: BIO-516 Hyötykasvit - Rehukasveja, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39052

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puna-apila

See also