Trifolium tomentosum

Woolly clover

Family: Fabaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Woolly clover is a naturalized annual found in northern California Coast Ranges, northern Sierra Nevada foothills, Sacramento Valley, and San Francisco Bay Area grasslands and roadsides at elevations below 400 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces pink flowers in woolly heads 6 to 12 millimeters long that become notably fuzzy in fruit. Growing with decumbent to slightly erect stems, it develops delicate low-spreading branches that form soft clusters. Its leaves have three leaflets, each 4 to 12 millimeters long, with obovate to obtriangular shapes and distinctive ovate stipules. The flowers gradually become reflexed, creating a soft, silvery-pink groundcover effect in disturbed grassland areas.

Habitat: Grassland, roadsides

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: < 400 m

Bioregions: NCoR, n SNF, ScV, SnFrB

California counties: Contra Costa, Amador, Butte, Sacramento, Placer, Los Angeles, Marin, Sonoma, Solano, Monterey, Napa, Mendocino, Alameda, Yuba, San Mateo, Madera, 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.