Trifolium microcephalum

Small-head clover, Small-Head Clover

Family: Fabaceae · Type: annual · Native

Small-head clover is a California native annual found in northwestern California, Sierra Nevada, Sacramento Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, southern Coast Ranges, southern California Coast, Channel Islands, western Transverse Ranges, San Bernardino Mountains, Peninsular Ranges, and Mojave Desert in streambanks, moist areas, roadsides, serpentine soils, and conifer forests at elevations of 0 to 2,700 meters. Flowering from April to August, this plant produces pink to lavender flowers in small, bur-like heads that become densely clustered. Growing with decumbent to erect stems that have finely wavy hairs, it reaches heights typical of annual clovers. Its leaves have three leaflets, each 0.8 to 2 centimeters long, generally obovate with a distinctively notched tip and stipules that are bristle-tipped. The flowers have a calyx 4 to 6 millimeters long with entire, bristle-tipped lobes that extend more than half the length of the tube.

Habitat: Streambanks, moist, disturbed areas, roadsides, serpentine, conifer forest

Bloom period: Apr-Aug

Elevation: 0-2700 m

Bioregions: NW, SN, GV, SnFrB, SCoRO, SCo, ChI, WTR, SnBr, PR, DMoj

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

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