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RED CLOVER
Trifolium pratense
Family LEGUMINOSAE
In meadows, pastures and by the roadsides the Common Red or Purple Clover may generally be found in the wild state. It has, however, been so long cultivated as a valuable fodder plant that in some localities it may not be truly indigenous.
It has a perennial stock, but of few years duration, from which rise the hairy, nearly erect stems, one to two feet long. Its large, oval leaflets are frequently marked with a whitish band, that takes, more or less, a quarter-moon shape.
The purplish-red flowers are composed of dense, globular heads, afterwards becoming longer than broad, with two trifoliate leaves close to their base. The calyx teeth are slender and bristly, not longer than the corolla. After flowering the petals tum brown, and when the seed is set the petals do not fall off, but simply dry up and wrap themselves around the seed-pod.
The flowering period extends from May to September.
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The leaves are not trefoils, as the name would lead one to suppose, for the apparent stipules clover red at the base of the leaf-stalk are, in this genus, leaflets. The flowers, which are in spreading heads of from three to ten flowers, are of bright yellow, tinted red clover with red. They are succeeded by little cylindrical pods about one inch in length, which, when three or four are in a cluster, present the appearance of a bird's clover red claw. The seeds are globular, separated by a pithy substance, which nearly fills the pod. The plant is a valued ingredient in the formation of pastures and meadows.
A pretty sight to the rambler in June amongst the short
corn-plants but to the farmer a great nuisance; for all must be laboriously hand clover red. picked and the land "cleaned " as he would probably express it. The rough lyre-shaped leaves have boldly-toothed edges with a few smaller leaves on the leaf-stalk, land red clover the stem rises to one or two feet high. The rather large bright yellow flowers have four petals. The fruit is an angular pod, with a straight beak, not persistent clover red, and twa hairy valves, but containing only one row of dark-brown seeds. The flowering period is from May to August.
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