Trifolium repens

White clover ( Trifolium repens )

The White Clover (Trifolium repens ), also known as creeping clover, is a perennial plant which belongs to the legume family ( Fabaceae or Leguminosae) and to the subfamily of Fabaceae ( Faboideae ).

Description

The White clover is a perennial herbaceous plant, reaching stature heights of 5 to 20 cm. It forms a strong taproot and a branched Erdstock, but no underground runners. The stem is bare, crawling and is 5 to 30, rarely 40 cm long. At the nodes, it forms roots.

The leaves are long, up to 20 cm, stalked. They are all seemingly due to the extended base of the stem axis. The leaves are trifoliate fingered, the leaflets are broadly elliptic to obovate. The length is usually 1 to 2.5, rarely to 4 cm, they are one to two times as long as wide. The end is truncate or slightly emarginate, the leaf margin is finely serrated. There are around 20 pairs of weak nerve gabeliger page. The leaf surface is glabrous, usually bright green, often occurs on a bright transverse fascia. The stipules are trockenhäutig and wear at the end of a grannenartige tip.

The flower heads consist of 40 to 80 flowers are spherical, 1.5 to 2.4 cm wide and are available in 5 to 30 cm long stems. The individual flowers are clearly stalked and after flowering hanging. The cup is 10nervig, almost bald and about half as long as the crown. He has an open, bare throat. The calyx teeth narrowly lanceolate, the upper two are longer than the others and almost as long as the calyx tube. The crown is 6 to 12 mm long, white, light brown after flowering. Bloom time is May to October.

The legume is linear, flattened, has a thin wall, includes three or four seeds and is constricted between the seeds. The seeds are ovate to roundish kidney-shaped, its color is sulfur - yellow to orange.

Flowers Ecology

The flowers are nectar forming butterfly flowers. You have a folding mechanism and a slight fragrance of nectar. The flowers are visited by numerous species of insects, pollination mechanism, however, can only be triggered by Apoiden like the honey bee. Self- pollination occurs when white clover before as well as not.

Occurrence

The White Clover is widely used in Europe. It occurs in Germany in all covered by the Floristic Mapping raster surfaces and is therefore here one of the most widely used plants in general.

The White Clover inhabited mainly meadows and pastures. Since he is very resistant occurs, it is often found along roadsides and even in sports facilities. It prefers nutrient-rich, slightly calcareous, loamy, moist soils and grows well in sandy soil, which still bears oats. He comes into central Europe from sea level to over 2,200 meters above sea level in the Alps before.

Use

Agricultural use

In agriculture, white clover is also grown as a forage crop. He inflates less, is more nutritious than the red red clover (Trifolium pratense) and is equally suitable for cutting and for pasture. Although it remains lower than the red clover; but his income in the sandy soil is less only by one-third, and in addition to the hay feeding better. He is particularly valuable where artificial pastures must be created, and is also sown with red clover meadows in the batch. The semen is richer and far more convenient than the latter.

Man sows on an acre 10-15 kg and 40-60 quintals harvested from one hectare of hay.

The plants provide as legumes also the soil with nitrogen. For this reason and because it is a perfect ground cover plant for weed suppression foothills, the white clover ( as so-called " Ladino clover " Trifolium repens lodigense ) also highly valued in permaculture by Masanobu Fukuoka.

In addition, white clover is an important bee costume plant with very good nectar and pollen costume good value. In contrast to the red clover, which is mainly pollinated by long-tongued bumblebee species that reach the White Clover also kurzrüsseligen honey bees to nectar levels. Yields of 100 kg of honey per hectare are possible.

Use as a medicinal plant

The white clover was formerly known as a medicinal plant and is now rarely under the name " Flores trifolii albi " ( white clover blossoms ) are offered. In the herb and the flowers were 12 different flavonoids, triterpene saponins, isoflavonoids and coumestrol be detected with estrogenic activity and Bicumarine.

Toxicology

The leaves of white clover emit in violation of hydrocyanic acid, which is particularly toxic in this case gastropods.

Cultural Significance

The typical threefold shamrocks play a role on coats of arms, as well as a symbol of Ireland.

Four-leaf clovers are considered lucky charm rarely found in wild plants. According to recent molecular genetic studies, this is probably due to the fact that the characteristics for the Mehrblättrigkeit the course of evolution have become recessive. Only if by special environmental conditions, which is inhibited expression of the dominant Dreiblättrigkeit normally, fourfold as an exceptional case shamrocks are formed. However, an unassuming four-leaf cultivar is of white clover for the garden and window boxes under the name chocolate clover four-petalled, Quadrifolium Purpureum available.

The offered on the florists for New Year's " lucky clover " ( Oxalis tetraphylla ), however, is one of the sorrel family ( Oxalidaceae ).

Documents

• Siegmund Seybold (ed.): Schmeil - Fitschen interactive. CD -ROM, Version 1.1, Quelle & Meyer, Wiebelsheim 2002, ISBN 3-494-01327-6 (characteristics, ecology flowers ).
• Ruprecht Duell, Herfried Kutzelnigg: Pocket Dictionary of Plants in Germany and neighboring countries. The most common central European species in the portrait. 7, revised and expanded edition. Quelle & Meyer, Wiebelsheim 2011, ISBN 978-3-494-01424-1.
• Margot Spohn, Marianne Golte - Bechtle: What flowers there? The Encyclopedia: over 1000 flowering plants in Central Europe. Kosmos, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-440-10326-9.