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{{Taxobox
| color = lightgreen
| name = White Clover
| status =

secure
| image = trifolium-repens.jpg
| image_width = 240px
| regnum = [[Plant]]ae
| divisio = [[Flowering plant|Magnoliophyta]]
| classis = [[Magnoliopsida]]
| ordo = [[Fabales]]
| familia = [[Fabaceae]]
| subfamilia = [[Faboideae]]
| genus = ''[[clover|Trifolium]]''
| species = '''''T. repens'''''
| binomial = ''Trifolium repens''
| binomial_authority = [[Carolus Linnaeus|L.]]
}}

'''White Clover''' (''Trifolium repens'') is a [[species]] of [[clover]] native to [[Europe]], North [[Africa]], and West [[Asia]]. It has been widely introduced elsewhere in the world as a [[pasture]] crop.

It is a [[herbaceous]] [[perennial plant]]. It is low growing, with heads of whitish flowers, often with a tinge of pink or cream. The heads are generally 1.5-2 cm wide, and are at the end of 7 cm [[peduncles]] or flower stalks <ref name="wotn">Richard H. Uva, Joseph C. Neal and Joseph M. Ditomaso, ''Weeds of The Northeast'', (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997), Pp. 236-237.</ref>. The leaves are trifoliolate, smooth, elliptic to egg-shaped and long-petioled. The stems function as [[stolon]]s, so white clover often forms mats with the stems creeping as much as 18 cm a year, and rooting at the nodes <ref name=wotn/>.

[[Image:White clover close 800.jpg|thumb|left|A close-up of the flowers of White Clover]]

== Cultivation and Uses ==
White clover grows in turfgrass, crops, and landscapes <ref name=wotn/>. It is also found in a wide range of different field type environments. White clover can tolerate close mowing, and can grow on many different types and [[pH]]s of soil, but prefers [[clay]] <ref name=wotn/>. It is considered to be a beneficial component of natural or organic lawn care due to it's ability to [[Nitrogen fixation|fix nitrogen]] and out compete lawn weeds. Natural nitrogen fixing reduces leaching from the soil and can reduce the incidence of some lawn diseases that are enhanced by the availability of synthetic fertilizer. <ref name="Tukey">The Organic Lawn Care Manual'', Tukey, Storey Publishing. p 183.</ref>

Besides making an excellent forage crop for livestock, clovers are a valuable survival food: they are high in protein, widespread, and abundant. They are not easy to digest raw, but this can be easily fixed by boiling for 5-10 minutes <ref name="ewp">Lee Allen Peterson, ''Edible Wild Plants'', (New York City: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1977), P. 56.
</ref>. Dried flowerheads and seedpods can also be ground up into a nutritious flour and mixed with other foods, or can be steeped in hot water for a healthy, tasty tea-like infusion.

Before the introduction of broad-leaf herbicides, white clover was more often added to [[lawn]] seed mixes than it is today, as it is able to grow and provide green cover in poorer soils where turfgrasses do not perform well. Many people consider clover a [[weed]] when growing in lawns, in part because the flowers are attractive to [[bee]]s and thus create a danger for people with bare feet.

White clover is the only known plant on which the [[caterpillar]]s of the [[Coleophoridae]] case-bearer moth ''[[Coleophora mayrella]]'' feed.

== References ==
<references/>

* quattrofolium [[http://www.quattrofolium.com/eng/repens.html]]

== Gallery ==
{{wikiversity-bc|Trifolium repens}}
{{commons|Trifolium repens}}
{{wikispecies|Trifolium repens}}
<gallery>
Image:White clover macro 1.JPG|Closeup of a white clover
</gallery>

[[Category:Faboideae|Clover, White]]
[[Category:Flora of Europe]]
[[Category:Flora of Estonia]]
[[Category:Flora of the United Kingdom]]

White clover - Revision history

MediaWiki default at 07:04, 2 October 2007