Red Clover
Trifolium pratense
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Only long-tongued bumblebees can reach the nectar — which is why they matter to farming.
A perennial of grassland with trefoil leaves usually marked with a pale crescent, and dense rounded heads of pinkish-purple pea flowers set directly above a pair of leaves. Red clover is common on verges, meadows, rough grassland and old leys around Dumfries, and is also grown as a fodder and green manure crop.
Behaviour
The florets are long-tubed, so honey bees and short-tongued bumblebees mostly cannot reach the nectar — pollination depends heavily on long-tongued bumblebees such as the garden bumblebee and common carder. When red clover was exported to New Zealand it set no seed at all until bumblebees were imported too. Like all clovers it fixes nitrogen and enriches the soil.
When to see it
Quick facts
- Family
- Peas (Fabaceae)
- Height
- 20–60 cm
- Status
- Native; common, and widely sown as fodder
Photo by Ivar Leidus, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons