The meadow clover - a profile
- Botanical name: Trifolium pratense
- Popular names: red clover, meadow clover, honey flower, field clover
- Family: legumes
- Subfamily: Butterflies
- Occurrence: fat meadows, forests, fields
- Annual / perennial: perennial
- Height: 15 to 60 centimeters
- Leaves: green, three-leaved, rarely four-leaved
- Flower: red, white. Inflorescences up to 100 individual flowers
- Flowering period: April to October
- Harvest time: May to September
- Propagation: seeds, cuttings
- Use: kitchen, medicinal plant
- Toxic: not toxic
- Special features: contains plant hormones
The flower colors of the meadow clover
The best-known variation of the meadow clover is the red clover, which attracts attention with its red flowers. But there are also species with white or pink flowers.
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The roots of meadow clover become very long
Field clover forms long tap roots. They can grow up to two meters in depth. That is why meadow clover, like all types of clover, is very suitable as a green manure for fields and vegetable beds.
The plant also takes nitrogen from the air and collects it in small nodules on the roots. There the nitrogen is released and thus enriches the earth with nutrients in a natural way.
As a green manure, meadow clover is sown from March to September. The plants are cut with a scythe before the flowers break open. The roots remain in the soil and decompose there. In this way they loosen the earth deeply.
Pull meadow clover in the pot
To harvest clover seedlings for the kitchen, you can also sow meadow clover in a pot. If you want to keep the plant as an ornamental plant, choose as deep a pot as possible so that the roots can spread out.
Clover is not common in lawns
If the lawn is interspersed with clover, it is usually not meadow clover, but white clover. Meadow clover prefers nutritious soils and is not quite as robust as white clover.
Tips
Field clover is grown in the garden as animal feed or for use as a medicinal plant and culinary herb. The perennial plant is absorbed in winter and sprouts again in spring.
