Herbs perennial, 5–50 cm, pubescent or glabrous. Stems prostrate or creeping, branched, rooting at nodes. Leaves palmate; stipules linear or lanceo­late, dilated proximally, 1.3–2 cm, margins entire, apex subulate or acuminate; petiole 1–9 cm; petiolules 1 mm; leaflets 3, blades ovate, obovate, or elliptic, 0.5–3 × 0.3–1.5 cm, base cuneate, veins prominent, thickened, curved, margins spinulose-denticulate, apex obtuse, often retuse, surfaces hairy abaxially, glabrous adaxially. Peduncles 3–17 cm. Inflorescences axillary, erect or ascending, 10–30-flowered, globose, 0.8–2 × 0.8–2 cm; involucres cup-shaped, composed of bracteoles, bracteoles lanceolate-oblong, 3–6 mm, distinct or connate proximally. Pedicels straight, to 0.5 mm; bracteoles linear or lanceolate, 2–3 mm, acuminate or 2-fid. Flowers 6–8 mm; calyx tubular, inflated in fruit, markedly asymmetric-bilabiate, 2.5–7 mm, usually pilose to woolly, sometimes glabrescent, veins 5–10, connected by reticulating lateral veins, tube 2–7 mm, lobes unequal, abaxial equal to or longer than tube, straight, adaxial spreading in fruit, shorter than tube, very unequal in fruit, orifice open; corolla white to pink, 5–8 mm, banner oblong-lancelate, 5–8 × 2 mm, apex emarginate to crenulate. Legumes ovoid, 2.5–3 mm, long-beaked. Seeds 1 or 2, tan or brown-spotted, globose-reniform, 1–1.4 mm, smooth, dull. 2n = 16.

Phenology: Flowering Apr–Nov.
Habitat: Meadows, fields, roadsides, sandy and saline soils.
Elevation: 0–2000 m.

Distribution

• Generated Map
• Legacy Map

Introduced; B.C., Ont., Ariz., Calif., Colo., Ga., Idaho, Ill., Iowa, Kans., Mass., Minn., Mont., Nebr., Nev., N.J., N.Mex., N.Y., N.Dak., Ohio, Oreg., Pa., S.Dak., Utah, Wash., Wis., Wyo., c, s Europe, w Asia, introduced also in s South America, Pacific Islands (New Zealand), Australia.

Discussion

Trifolium fragiferum is cultivated for pastures and in mixtures with grass for hay and silage and, to a lesser extent, as groundcover in orchards and vineyards and as a green manure cover crop (L. St. John et al. 2010). It appears to have been introduced accidentally in the 1870s and as a crop around 1900 (E. A. Hollowell 1939).

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.