White clover

Trifolium repens

Family · Fabaceae · Harmless

Edible

The clover whose four-leaved form everyone hunts for, present in any lawn and pasture in the country. It fixes nitrogen in the soil and is among the plants that feed the most bees in Portugal.

Where it grows

Fields and pasture · Town and roadside · Roadsides and waste ground · Uplands

Also known as

Dutch clover, shamrock

In flower

How to tell it

Three oval leaflets, each with a pale V mark, on creeping stems that root at the nodes. Round white flower heads that turn brown and hang down once pollinated.

What it is confused with

Bermuda buttercup

Oxalis pes-caprae

Harmless confusion

The childhood confusion. Clover has oval leaflets with a V mark and a white flower head; sourgrass has notched heart-shaped leaflets and a five-petalled yellow flower.

Open sheet →

What it is for

First-rate fodder and green manure. The flowers are eaten raw in salad and the leaves cooked, though in quantity they sit heavily.

Traditionally used as food. This is not permission to eat it.

Sources

Flora-On