Red clover
Trifolium pratense
Family · Fabaceae · Harmless
The big clover with purplish pink heads of wet meadows and upland pastures. More upright than white clover, and the most sown forage plant of temperate Europe.
Fields and pasture · Uplands · Roadsides and waste ground
Also known asmeadow clover, purple clover
How to tell it
Three leaflets with a pale crescent mark, on upright hairy stems. A large purplish pink flower head, cradled by two leaves clasping it from below.
What it is confused with
White clover
Trifolium repens
Colour and habit: white clover creeps with a white head, red clover stands up with a pink head. Both harmless.
Open sheet →What it is for
Fodder and green manure, and the flowers are used in infusions. Sucking the nectar from the base of each floret is a childhood game across half of Europe.
Traditionally used as food. This is not permission to eat it.
With documented traditional uses. Not a therapeutic indication and not a dose.