Trifolium oliganthum

Few-flowered clover

Family: Fabaceae · Type: annual · Native

Few-flowered clover is a California native annual found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, and southern Coast Ranges on woody or shrubby slopes and roadsides at elevations below 1,000 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces small white to pale pink flowers in compact head-like clusters 6 to 10 millimeters wide with 5 to 15 individual flowers. Growing with ascending to erect stems typically glabrous (smooth), it reaches a modest height with delicate branching. Its leaves have three leaflets ranging from 1 to 2 centimeters long, varying from linear to obovate shapes, with distinctive stipules that are toothed or deeply cut. The flower's calyx is 5 to 7 millimeters long, with lobes that taper to occasionally forked bristles, complementing the slightly longer corolla.

Habitat: Woody or shrubby slopes, roadsides

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: < 1000 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoR, SN, GV, SnFrB, SCoRO

California counties: Contra Costa, Kern, Butte, San Luis Obispo, Marin, Lake, Santa Clara, Monterey, Alameda, Santa Cruz, Fresno, San Mateo, Napa, Inyo, Mendocino, Humboldt, Sonoma, Sacramento, Yuba, Tulare, Santa Barbara, Solano, Shasta, Sutter, Nevada, Amador, Del Norte, Stanislaus, El Dorado, Calaveras, Tehama, Trinity, Yolo, Merced, Mariposa, Tuolumne

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