Trifolium willdenovii

Tomcat clover

Family: Fabaceae · Type: annual · Native

Tomcat clover is a California native annual herb found in the California Floristic Province and Modoc Plateau in abundant disturbed, spring-moist habitats at elevations from sea level to 2,500 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces lavender to purple flowers with white tips in dense, wheel-shaped heads 1.5 to 3 centimeters wide. Growing with sprawling to erect stems that are glabrous, it can range from small to robust in form. Its leaves have three leaflets 1 to 5 centimeters long, ranging from linear to obovate with fine serrate edges less than 1 millimeter deep. The plant's distinctive stipules are sharply bristle-tipped, with upper stipules often intricately cut.

Habitat: Abundant. Disturbed, generally spring-moist, heavy soils, occasionally serpentine

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: 0-2500 m

Bioregions: CA-FP, MP

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

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