Flora of the Hawaiian Islands
Literature for Trifolium repens
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999. Literature for Trifolium repens var. repens
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999.
   Fabaceae -- The Pea Family Bibliography
      Trifolium repens
General Information
DistributionNative to Europe, central and northern Asia, and northern Africa, common as a pasture clover, introduced worldwide.
Habit
Perennial herbs from taproots; stems prostrate, rooting at the nodes, often mat-forming, 1-4 dm long, glabrous or sparsely pubescent.
Leaves
Leaflets bright green with pale or dark marks along veins, or both, obcordate to obovate or elliptic, (6-)10-25 mm long, (6-)10-15 mm wide, margins denticulate or serrate, stipules membranous, oblong, adnate to petioles ca. 2/3 their length in younger stages only, later ripped away from petioles but still surrounding the stem, contracted into the subulate apex.
Flowers
Heads axillary, loosely globose, (15-)20-25(-30) mm in diameter, peduncles 50-150(-200) mm long, pedicels 1-2 mm long, reflexing and elongating to 5-6 mm long in fruit, bracts elliptic; calyx tube 2-3 mm long, 10-nerved, glabrous, the throat open, glabrous, the teeth subequal, deltate, 2-3 mm long; corolla white or pink, becoming brown, 6-12 mm long.
Fruit
Pods oblong-linear, slightly exserted from calyx.
Seeds
Seeds (2)3-4, yellowish brown, ovoid or reniform, 1-1.3 mm long.
Chromosomes
2n = 16, 22, 28, 30, 32, 48, 64