Narrow-leaf clover
Trifolium angustifolium
Family · Fabaceae · Harmless
The clover that does not look like one: long narrow grass-like leaflets, and a pink hairy spike that lengthens like a cat's tail. It fills southern cornfields and sandy ground in spring.
Fields and pasture · Roadsides and waste ground · Pine woods · Dunes and sand
Also known asnarrow clover
How to tell it
Three very narrow, long leaflets that fool anyone expecting a round clover leaf. A conical elongated spike, pale pink, covered in silky hairs, which keeps growing as it flowers.
What it is confused with
Hop trefoil
Trifolium campestre
Head colour and shape: yellow and round on hop trefoil, pink and tail-like here. Both harmless.
What it is for
Fodder in dry pasture. No relevant human food use.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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