Seasonal Wild Flowers

Latin name

Trifolium resupinatum

Other names

Persian clover

Family

Fabaceae

Flowering season

May to July 

English distribution

It is thinly scattered throughout the country but is most

common in southern regions and almost absent in the

North.

See the BSBI distribution map for Reversed Clover

Habitat

It is a neophyte which has been grown in the UK since

the 1710s and known in the wild since the 1830s.

It is grown in many parts of the world as a fodder plant

and as a green manure. It is occasionally grown

commercially in the UK.

The escape grows as a casual but can also becomes

persistently naturalised. For example, the pictures shown

here were taken from a population which has been known

in grassland at West Bay, Dorset, for over 20 years.

Naturalised populations grow on waste land, by roads

and tracks, in fields fertilised with wool shoddy, and as a

contaminant of bird seed.

Description

Reversed Clover is an annual, nitrogen-fixing, largely

prostrate herb growing up to 30cm.

The flowers are in flowerheads up to 1.5cm across.

Individual flowers are pink, up to 8mm and twisted so

that the keel petal is on top and the standard petal below.

The fruits are encased in a swollen, hairy calyx, rather

like in Strawberry Clover.

The leaves are oval, toothed trefoils.

The stems are green and angular and do not root at the

nodes.