With all the abundance of blooming wildflowers that spring brings, it’s often easy to overlook the unassuming common, weedy species like dandelions, purple deadnettle, and clover. White clover (Trifolium repens) is common in fields and lawns (much to the chagrin of folks trying to maintain that weed-free lawn look). The flowers begin white and then change to pink and then to brown as they age. From far away, the flowers seem fairly round and simple. But up close, clover flowers are actually a collection of smaller, intricate, pea-like flowers – definitely worth a closer look if you’ve never gotten up close and personal with a clover blossom. In addition to their subtle beauty, white clover flowers are also attractive to a variety of pollinators, and because they are legumes, can actively fix nitrogen into the soil and improve the area for other plants to grow.

When in flower, it is easy to distinguish white clover from the similar species red clover (Trifolium pratense). But when the blossoms are not present, the surest way to determine which species you have is the branching pattern. In white clover, flowers and leaves arise separately on individual stalks emanating from creeping runners. Red clover, on the other hand, can have multiple leaves growing from the same vertical stalk that supports the flower head. 

The three-part compound leaf of the clover is familiar to most everyone. The genus name, Trifolium, is derived from the Latin “tri” meaning “three”, and “folium” meaning “leaf”, referring to the characteristic form of the leaf, which usually has three leaflets. But not always. Four-leaf clovers are possible, and although considered lucky by many, are actually caused by a mutation reported to occur about once in every 5,000 to 10,000 clover leaves. And the mutation doesn’t stop at four – I have found five-leaf clovers in the past and clovers with as many as 18 leaflets per leaf have been recorded.