[Clovers: The Genus Trifolium West of the Cascade Mountains of Oregon and Washington]

Few-flowered Clover, Sand Clover

Trifolium oliganthum

Synonyms: Trifolium pauciflorum, Trifolium variegatum var. pauciflorum

What appears to be few-flower clover observed at Rough nd Ready Botanical Wayside......April 5, 2022. Note the involucre subtending the flower head as well as the red-tipped calyx lobes.

Characteristics:

Few-flower clover is a glabrous annual wildflower with one to several prostrate to ascending stems from 10-60 cm long. The stems are thin and weak and often diffusly branched. The leaves are alternately arranged along the stems and are ternately compound. The stipules are ovate in shape and deeply incised along the margin. The leaflets measure 5-20 mm long and are oblanceolate to obcordate in shape with minute, sharp teeth along the margins.

The flower heads are 1-2 cm wide and contain 3-40 flowers. They are immediately subtended by a saucer-shaped, glabrous involucre which is irregularly lobed and deply cut about half its length. The calyx tube is narrowly bell-shaped with the teeth considerably longer than the tube. The corolla is about 5-20 mm long and purple in color, often with a lighter to whitish tip. The flowers typically age to a purplish-brown color.

Few-flower clover is found on moist, open ground along streams and in vernally moist meadows.

Range:

White-tip clover may generally be found west of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada Mts. from British Columbia south through Washington and Oregon to California but is occasionally found eastward to Idaho, Utah and Montana.

It may be found between the elevations of 100'-3000' from west of Stevenson, WA eastward to near the Deschutes River.

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Few-flowered clover as seen from Catherine Creek, Collumbia River Gorge..........May 1, 2005.

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Close-ups of the flowers and stem leaf of few-flowered clover as seen in the Labyrinth, mid-Columbia River Gorge..........April 15, 2010.

Few-flowered clover as seen at Catherine Creek, Columbia River Gorge.........May 10, 2009.

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Close-up views of few-flowered clover as seen in a moist seep along Washington Highway 14 at Horsethief Butte, eastern Columbia River Gorge..........June 3, 2009.

Few-flowered clover blooming along a small vernal creek at Brooks Memorial State Park near Satus Pass, Washington..........May 31, 2015.

Paul Slichter