Trifolium

Plant Characteristics

Origin:	✈	?

Cultivation

Exposure:	☼	?"?" is not in the list (sun, part-sun, shade, unknown) of allowed values for the "Exposure" property.
Water:	◍	?"?" is not in the list (wet, moist, moderate, dry, less when dormant) of allowed values for the "Water" property.

Scientific Names

Read about Trifolium in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Trifolium (name refers to the three leaflets). Leguminosae. Clover. Low annual and perennial herbs, useful for cover-crops, soil-enrichment, and also in lawn-seed mixtures. Leaves digitately 3-, rarely 5-7-foliate; stipules adnate to the base of the petiole: fls. usually purplish, red or white, rarely yellow, in spikes, heads, or umbels, or rarely solitary; calyx-teeth or lobes about equal or the lower longer, the 2 upper sometimes more or less connate; petals usually withering rather than falling off, more or less adnate to the base of the stamen-tube; stamens 9 and 1; ovary small, ripening into a few-seeded, mostly indehiscent pod.—Between 200and 300 species, most abundant in the N. Temp. zone. The clovers are very important agricultural plants, but they have little distinctly horticultural value except as cover-crops and green-manures. See Clover, page 805, Vol. II. For the role of clovers as nitrogen-fixers, see Legumes, page 1834, Vol. IV. The species described here are offered mostly as forage plants. Many clovers are perennial, although they are of relatively short life, so that frequent resowing is necessary if plants are to be kept in robust condition. Some of the species are annual, and these tend to become weeds. All are propagated readily by means of seeds; but as the seeds are small and oily, they may not germinate well in dry hot soils. Three annual yellow-flowered species are weeds in some parts, particularly in the East, where they have been introduced from Europe: T. agrarium, Linn., yellow or hop-clover; with oblong-obovate sessile leaflets; T. procumbens, Linn., low hop-clover, more spreading, leaflets obovate and the terminal one stalked; T. dubium, Sibth., with leaflets truncate or emarginate at apex and the terminal one stalked. A silky-pubescent white-flowered annual species from Europe, T. arvense Linn., is the rabbit-foot clover of fields and waste places. T. odoratum of seedsmen is evidently Melilotus. Allied genera are Lespedeza, Medicago, and Melilotus. CH The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

Cultivation

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Propagation

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Pests and diseases

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Gallery

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References

• Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963

External links

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• Trifolium QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)