KNOTTED CLOVER

Soft Clover

Trifolium striatum

Pea Family [Fabaceae]

sex

20th July 2012, Burton Dasset Hills, Warwickshire.

Photo: © Diane Napier

Another short but either erect or decumbent plant, growing up to 30cm long. Don't overlook the ground part of the same plant at bottom left. It seems here to be less curvy than most other Clovers.
[Ignore the purple-pink flowers on the extreme right, and half hidden elsewhere]

20th July 2012, Burton Dasset Hills, Warwickshire.

Photo: © Diane Napier

The pinkish-purple petals are 4 to 7mm long. Each floret is within a sepal tube which may be slightly swollen in the middle and is striped green or red with a paler body (all are green-striped on this specimen).
The stipules (which occur at the bottom of the leaf-stalks) also have either red or green stripes - (all red =-striped on this specimen).

20th July 2012, Burton Dasset Hills, Warwickshire.

Photo: © Diane Napier

The 3 leaflets of the leaf are between 5 to 15mm long and have straight lateral veins.

20th July 2012, Burton Dasset Hills, Warwickshire.

The sepal teeth are narrow but not long. The sepal tubes are clustered together into a stalkless head which is 8 to 12mm. There is a stalkless terminal head and one or two axillary stalkless heads immediately below the terminal head. The composite floral head may (or may not) be enclosed within an enlarged stipule of an adjacent leaf. The florets in one of the floral heads have withered and turned brown, the fruiting stage.

Not to be semantically confused with : Knotted Crane's-bill (Geranium nodosum), Knotted Pearlwort (Sagina nodosa) nor with Knotted Hedge-Parsley (Torilis nodosa) [plants with similar names in different families]

Uniquely identifiable characteristics

Distinguishing Feature : See italicised captions.

It is native and grows in heath grass-lands, grassy banks, short turf on dunes, and open places on dry sandy soils, especially near the sea. It occurs locally frequently throughout the British Isles, Isle of Mann, the Chanel Islands and Eastern Ireland, but south of Upper Scotland.

Trifolium

striatum

⇐ Global Aspect ⇒

Fabaceae

Distribution
family8Pea family8Fabaceae
BSBI maps

Trifolium
(Clovers)