White Clover   Fabaceae    Trifolium repens L.   
  
Other names:  Dutch Clover, Ladino Clover                                                            

Leaf:  Alternate, palmately compound with 3 leaflets forming typical clover shape; each leaflet ovate to obovate, rounded or shallowly notched at the tip, tapering to the base, 3/4 to 1 inch (2 to 2.5 cm) long; margin with tiny teeth; upper surface pinnately-veined, smooth, green with a white or light-green v-shaped marking near the base; lower surface light green, with small bristles toward the stalk; leafstalks long and slender.

Flower:  Many flowers crowded together into spherical heads, each head borne on a long stalk; blooming May to October; each flower pea-like, white, less than 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) long, borne on its own very short stalk, 10 stamens, 5 green sepals, 5 white petals, turning brown with age.       

Fruit:  Elongated pod, 4 to 5 mm long, usually containing 4 seeds.       

Stem:  Usually spreading along ground with roots at the nodes, ends becoming upright, smooth or slightly hairy; 4 to 12 inches (10 to 30 cm) long.         

Form:  Delicate, perennial, creeping forb.

Discussion

Trifolium repens  is broken down into Tri, which means "3", folium, which means leaves, and repens, a name applied to "creeping plants with rooting stems".

White clover flowers, leaves, stems, seeds, and buds feed deer, birds, small mammals, livestock, and insects.  It is a favorite of ducks.  Bees pollinate the flowers as they feed among the clover blossoms.  

Native Americans ate whole clover as a salad green and used the flower heads to make teas as remedies for coughs and colds.  Folk medicine prescribed white clover remedies for a variety of ailments, from gout and rheumatism to gastrointestinal distress.  Folklore held that white clover (and all clovers) were lucky because anyone with a clover leaf in his pocket could detect witches, sorcerers, and good fairies.   Christians saw its three-lobed leaves as representing the Trinity.

Agriculturally, white clover can be incorporated into hay or silage crops for livestock and poultry.  White clover seed is part of many pasture and forage seed mixtures.  However, cattle grazing lush stands composed of only white clover may suffer bloat.  As a legume, white clover harbors nitrogen-fixing bacteria in nodules on its roots, improving the soil on which it grows.   White clover may also be planted as a cover crop to stabilize bare soils.  Soil covered with white clover has been shown to allow more rainfall to soak in than soil covered with grass. 

People can eat white clover, using the seeds and dried flowers in bread and the flower heads in teas.  We also use white clover honey, thanks to the bees.

White clover was introduced to North America from the eastern Mediterranean region of Europe.  This is the species which children examine to search for the elusive 4-leaf clover.  

Distinguishing Characteristics

White clover has white or pinkish-white head-like flower clusters and 3-part leaves on separate stalks rising from a creeping stem.  White clover forms low green patches in lawns and other grassy areas.  

Associated Plants

Milfoil (Achillea millefolium), hairy aster (Aster pilosus), black medic (Medicago lupulina), and red clover (Trifolium pratense).

Distribution

White clover is found throughout North America, growing in fertile soils of lawns, grasslands, roadsides, open woods, orchards.

Images

Click each small picture to see a larger image. 

October, 2003 JB	October, 2003 JG	October, 2003 JG
October, 2003 JB

Location

N 39.27932°   W -89.89034°
In the southeast corner of a vacant lot next to McDonald's, West Main Street, Carlinville, Macoupin County, IL.

Copyright

Photos © 2003 Josh Gooding and James Blackledge, Carlinville High School, linke@carlinvilleschools.net       
            

References

Niering, William A. and Nancy C. Olmstead.  1979.  National Audubon Society field guide to North American wildflowers. Alfred A Knopf, New York   887 pp.

Mohlenbrock, Robert H.  1981.  Wildflowers of fields, roadsides, and open habitats of Illinois.  Illinois Dept. of Conservation, Division of Forest Resources and National Heritage, Springfield.  262 pp.

Illinois Plant Information Network (accessed 12/03)
http://www.fs.fed.us/ne/delaware/ilpin/T.htm

Virginia Tech Weed Identification Guide
http://www.ppws.vt.edu/scott/weed_id/trfre.htm

Nearctica, The Natural World of North America
http://www.nearctica.com/flowers/legume/trifol/Trepens.htm

Cover Crop Resource Page, Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, University of California
http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/cgi-bin/ccrop.exe/show_crop_42

Biodiversity.  "Medicinal Plants in Your Backyard:  Exploring Biodiversity through Ethnobotany".  The Woodrow Wilson Foundation Leadership Program for Teachers
http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/bi/2000/Ethnobotany/white_clover.html

 Click here to return to the plant list for Carlinville High School's South-Central Illinois flora studies.