Trifolium amoenum

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T. amoenum Credit: Doreen Smith
Plant Info
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Scientific classification
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[[{{{diversity_link}}}|Diversity]]
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Binomial name
Trifolium amoenum Greene
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Trifolium amoenum, known by the common name Showy Indian clover is an endangered annual herb that subsists in grassland areas of the San Francisco Bay Area and the California Coast Ranges. This wildflower has an erect growth habit and is typically found on heavy soils at elevations less than 100 meters. Recent conservation research on T. amoenum has been conducted by the Bodega Marine Laboratory.

Morphology

The flower head is somewhat spherical with a diameter of about 2.5 centimeters. The petals are purple gradating to white tips.

History and conservation

Edward Lee Greene collected the first recorded specimen of this plant in 1890 in Solano County. The historical range of Trifolium amoenum was from the western extreme of the Sacramento Valley in Solano County, west and north to Marin and Sonoma counties, where many sites were presumed extirpated by urban and agricultural development. From further expansion of the human population, Trifolium amoenum had become a rare species by the mid 1900s. Through the latter 1900s the number of distinct populations dwindled to about 20 in number, from pressure of an expanding human population and urban development.

By 1993 the species was thought to be extinct, but was rediscovered by Peter Connors in the form of a single plant on a site in western Sonoma County. Subsequently the seeds from this single organism were used to grow more specimens. Presently there is only a single extant population, subsequently discovered in 1996, in northern Marin County, which numbers approximately 200 plants. T. amoenum became a federally listed endangered species in 1997.

See also

• Americano Creek
• Vernal pool

External links

• California Native Plant Link Exchange species summary for Trifolium amoenum
• United States Department of Agriculture profile for Trifolium amoenum