Seasonal Wild Flowers

Latin name

Trifolium incarnatum subsp. incarnatum

Other names

Italian Clover, Scarlet Clover, Napoleon

Family

Fabaceae

Flowering season

May to September

English distribution

It is thinly scattered throughout the country, but is more

common in southern regions.

See the BSBI distribution map for Crimson Clover

Habitat

It is neophyte, which used to be grown as nitrogen-

rich crop in Tudor times.

It has gone out of fashion but is still used as a green

manure

to suppress weeds and to increase the nitrogen content

of soils.

It is also part of wildflower seed mixtures for decoration,

attracting birds and in wildflower strips to attract insect

pollinators on to farms.

It is naturalised in the South in grassy places.

Description

Crimson Clover is an annual, nitrogen-fixing herb growing

up to 40cm.

Flowering stems are long and have one trefoil leaf.

Flowerheads are up to 7cm long and up to 2cm across.

Individual flowers are up to 1cm, sessile and shaggily

hairy.

Pods are up to 3mm and have 1 seed.

Leaves are on petioles up to 8cm long and each of the

leaflets of the trefoil are up to 4cm.

Stems are erect and shaggy.