Trifolium fucatum

Bull clover

Family: Fabaceae · Type: annual · Native

Bull clover is a California native annual herb found in coastal and interior regions including Northern Coast, Northern Coast Ranges, Cascade Range, Central Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, Southern California Coast, and Channel Islands in moist grasslands, marshes, and roadsides at elevations below 1,100 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces dull white or pale yellow flowers with purple-tipped petals in dense, rounded heads. Growing with decumbent to erect stems 15 to 40 centimeters tall that are generally hollow and simple to branched, it has a robust, nearly smooth appearance. Its leaves have three leaflets 1 to 2.5 centimeters long, elliptic to nearly round, with slightly toothed edges and wide, somewhat translucent stipules. The fruit develops 2 to 4 seeds with a distinctive net-like seed coat, with each fruit measuring 5 to 10 millimeters long.

Habitat: Locally abundant. Moist, open grassland, marshes, roadsides, occasionally saline or serpentine soils

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: < 1100 m

Bioregions: NCo, NCoR, CaR, GV, SnFrB, SCo, ChI

California counties: Trinity, Humboldt, Mendocino, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Alameda, Los Angeles, Orange, Yolo, Sonoma, Shasta, Solano, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Amador, San Luis Obispo, Colusa, Sacramento, Monterey, Marin, Glenn, San Francisco, Lake, Napa, San Mateo, Butte, Tehama, Contra Costa, San Benito, San Bernardino, Merced, Fresno, San Joaquin, Riverside, Sutter, San Diego

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