Trifolium albopurpureum

Indian clover

Family: Fabaceae · Type: annual · Native

Indian clover is a California native annual herb found in the California Floristic Province in coastal dunes, grasslands, wet meadows, open slopes, oak chaparral, pine woodlands, and disturbed areas at elevations below 2,100 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces distinctive two-colored flowers with purple and white petals in dense ovate spikes 5 to 20 millimeters wide. Growing with hairy stems that are decumbent to erect, typically 10 to 30 centimeters tall, it has a delicate branching habit. Its leaves have three leaflets, each 1 to 3 centimeters long, oblanceolate to obovate in shape, with small stipules at the leaf base. Small clusters of flowers feature calyxes 4 to 8 millimeters long with plumose lobes that are longer than the flower tube.

Habitat: Abundant. Coastal dunes, grassland, wet meadows, open slopes, oak chaparral, pine woodland, roadsides, disturbed areas

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: < 2100 m

Bioregions: CA-FP

California counties: Humboldt, Kern, San Diego, Riverside, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Tulare, San Luis Obispo, Ventura, San Bernardino, Monterey, Madera, Mariposa, Fresno, Tuolumne, Lake, Marin, Calaveras, Colusa, Amador, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Kings, Tehama, Napa, Trinity, Butte, Contra Costa, Siskiyou, Alameda, Santa Cruz, Solano, San Joaquin, El Dorado, Sutter, Sonoma, Merced, Shasta, Glenn, Yolo, Sacramento, Stanislaus, Mendocino, Del Norte, San Benito, Yuba, Nevada, Orange

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.