Star clover
Trifolium stellatum
Family · Fabaceae · Harmless
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The clover that looks better dead: the dried heads open into red hairy stars that stand all summer and are among the prettiest things in a dry field.
Fields and pasture · Dunes and sand · Roadsides and waste ground · Scrubland
Also known asstarry clover
How to tell it
An upright plant covered in soft white hairs. Leaves of three inverted-heart leaflets. Round stalkless heads with pale pink or white flowers. After flowering the sepals lengthen, turn bright red and spread outward, forming a ten-pointed star on each flower.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
No use
It is worth knowing for aesthetic and practical reasons: it is one of the few plants identifiable with certainty in August, when everything else is indistinct brown straw.
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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