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Trifolium pratense
Also called Purple Clover, Chilean Clover, Cowgrass Clover, Mammoth Red Clover, Medium Red Clover, Peavine Clover, Meadow Clover
Red clover is a short-lived perennial legume grown mainly as a forage and green manure crop, valued for fixing nitrogen in the soil. It is also grown as an ornamental and its flowers are edible.
Trifolium pratense (from Latin prātum, meaning meadow), red clover, is a herbaceous species of flowering plant in the bean family, Fabaceae. It is native to the Old World, but planted and naturalised in many other regions.
The red clover is native to Europe, Western Asia, and northwest Africa, but it has been naturalised in other continents, like North and South America. Specifically, the red clover was brought to Argentina and Chile over 100 years ago, although it is not clear how exactly it was introduced. Additionally, it has been introduced to New Zealand.
It is widely grown as a fodder crop, valued for its nitrogen fixation, which increases soil fertility. For these reasons, it is used as a green manure crop. Several cultivar groups have been selected for agricultural use, mostly derived from T. pratense var. sativum. It has become naturalised in many temperate areas, including the Americas and Australasia as an escape from cultivation. The red clover has become increasingly important as a source of economic stability in Chile, which has made the need for pollinators even more important.
Owl-head clover · Kura clover · Showy Indian clover · Narrowleaf crimson clover · Golden clover · Brown clover · Southern clover · Foothill clover · Strawberry clover · Clustered clover · Rose clover · Alsike clover
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Trifolium pratense by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
