Trifolium ciliolatum

Foothill clover

Family: Fabaceae · Type: annual · Native

Foothill clover is a California native annual found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, central western California, southwestern California, and Modoc Plateau (excluding Warner Mountains) in grassland, chaparral, and disturbed areas at elevations of 150 to 1,700 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces pink to purple flowers in dense, spherical heads 7 to 20 millimeters wide with bristle-tipped upper stipules. Growing with erect stems that have long internodes and are nearly hairless, it develops an upright, somewhat open form. Its leaves have three leaflets 1 to 3 centimeters long, which are oblanceolate to obovate with serrated edges. The flowers have unequal calyx lobes with short, flat bristles and soon become reflexed after blooming.

Habitat: Locally common. Grassland, chaparral, disturbed areas

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: 150-1700 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoR, CaR, SN, GV, CW, SW, MP exc Wrn

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

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