Trifolium polyodon

Pacific grove clover

Family: Fabaceae · Type: annual · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.1

Pacific grove clover is a rare (CNPS 1B.1) California native annual found in the Monterey Peninsula in closed-cone pine forest and moist meadows at elevations below 300 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces pink to white flowers with purple tips in compact head-like clusters 0.5 to 2.5 centimeters wide. Growing with decumbent-ascending stems, it reaches a low-spreading form with glabrous green foliage. Its leaves feature distinctive stipules up to one centimeter long and widely ovate, with leaflets 5 to 20 millimeters long that are widely elliptic to obovate with rounded tips. The flower's delicate calyx is 4 to 7 millimeters long, with an intricate wheel-shaped involucre cut to its middle.

Habitat: Closed-cone-pine forest; moist meadows, streamsides

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: < 300 m

Bioregions: CCo (Monterey Peninsula).

California counties: Monterey, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, San Bernardino, Mono, Santa Cruz

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