Trifolium campestre Schreb.

Low Hop Clover; Field Clover

Herb

Annual

Vascular

Low Hop Clover is an introduced herbaceous annual in the Bean family (Fabaceae). It is native to Europe and western Asia. Low Hop Clover can be found throughout Alabama. It occurs on roadsides, in fields, in pastures, in lawns, and in other open sunny sites. It is an annual with a tap root. Stems are erect, green or reddish in color, branched mostly above the middle, and short appressed pubescent to glabrous. Leaves are alternate, petiolate, and trifoliate. The leaflets are oblong or elliptical in outline, toothed above the middle, and glabrous to slightly pubescent. Flowers are produced in globose to ovoid heads on long peduncles from the axils of the upper leaves. The calyx is tubular, glabrous, and 5 lobed. The upper two lobes are shorter than the lower three lobes. The corolla is papilionaceous and bright lemon yellow in color. The standard (upper petal) is conspicuously grooved (striate). The corolla persists and turns brown as the fruit develop. The fruit is an oblong 1-seeded legume. Low Hop Clover is similar to, and often grows with Least Hop Clover (Trifolium dubium Sibthorp). Low Hop Clover has 20-40 flowers per head while Least Hop Clover has 3-15. The standard of Least Hop Clover is not striate. Low Hop Clover is a larval food for Sulphur Butterflies (Colias sp.).—A. Diamond

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Not Native

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