Red Clover
Triflorium pratense
Family Leguminosae

Characteristics:
* Flowers red or pink, multiple, in a rounded head.
* Pale white arrow-shaped marks on leaves. Unlike white clover, flowers and leaves are on the same stalk.
* Height: 6-16".

Natural History:
* Flowers May - September.
* Habitat: Meadows, lawns, roadsides.
* Range: Throughout the United States.
* Native.

Connections!
* Red clover is the state flower of Vermont.

* It has been called Real Sweet Clover in Massachusetts and Maine. The reason for this, well, descriptive title? Nectar can be sucked from the flowers.

* "The medow Trefoile (especially that with the blacke half moon upon the leaf) stamped with a little honie, takes away the pin and web in the eies, ceasing the pain and inflammation thereof, if it be strained and dropped therein."
-John Gerard, 1633

* Clovers fix nitrogen from the atmosphere and are often grown in pastures with grasses such as timothy because the clover is a good source of protein for grazing animals. Clover also aids the growth of the grass by increasing the nitrogen content of the soil.