2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Multifoliate clover (Latin Trifolium polyphyllum) - a herbaceous perennial plant from the genus Clover (Latin Trifolium), belonging to the legume family (Latin Fabaceae). This species changed the traditions of most species of the genus, replacing the trefoil with a complex leaf with numerous leaves on one petiole. The structure of the inflorescence, formed by larger flowers, which has not a capitate shape, but the shape of an umbrella, is also different. Grows in mountainous alpine regions, serving as food for herbivores. It is quite a picturesque plant, worthy of decorating an alpine hill with its inflorescences with relatively large moth-type flowers. Like all plants of the legume family, it heals the soil, helping its neighbors live.
What's in your name
Although the compound leaf of the Multifoliate Clover has more than three leaves (from five to nine pieces) on one petiole, the first word of its name corresponds to the name of the genus to which the botanists attributed it, that is, this word is Latin "Trifolium" or Russian "Shamrock".
The Latin specific epithet "polyphyllum" is translated into Russian by the word "multi-leaved", indicating the peculiarity of this species, which has an unconventional number of leaves on one petiole, equal to three, and sometimes three times more.
Description
Perennial clover is supported by a multi-headed taproot that goes deep and is surrounded in its upper part by a network of adventitious roots. Such a root system not only supports the life of the plant for a long time, but also helps to extract food from the depths of the soil, because the multifoliate clover grows in mountainous regions, on stones that do not indulge in an easy life.
Narrow-lanceolate or linear leaflets up to two centimeters long and two to five millimeters wide are located on bare petioles, the length of which is two to four times the length of the leaflets themselves. Breaking with the tradition of the genus, many-leaved clover decorates its petioles not with three leaves, but manages to have from five to nine leaves with sharp tips, keeping only an odd number of them, that is, five, seven or nine. Numerous lateral veins are clearly visible from the back of the leaflets and form the jagged edge of the leaf plate on the upper half of the leaflet, giving them a rather decorative look. The pointed membranous stipules gently embrace the petiole, growing together with it along its entire length.
Unlike petioles with leaves, rare stems, crowned with inflorescences, do not bear leaves on themselves, but proudly rise above the green deciduous community, forming a continuous living carpet. The height of the peduncle stems, depending on living conditions, ranges from five to twenty centimeters. The apical inflorescences are more umbrella-like than the typical clover heads of most species. This is facilitated by the shape of the flower cup, cut in half. One gets the impression that each flower wants to be independent, deviating on two or three millimeter pedicels to the side. The corolla of the flower is decorated and protected by filamentous pointed lobes of sepals. The flower petals of the moth-like species can be painted in shades from white-pink to purple-purple. In a fairly large flower, it is easier to see its petals with a central ovoid flag and shorter lateral wings protecting the ovary and stamens.
Flowers pollinated by insects give way to the traditional fruit - a filmy, flat bean up to one centimeter long and three to five millimeters wide, inside which there may be one or two brown seeds that protect vegetative reproduction.
Role of multifoliate clover in nature
Many-leaved clover is an inhabitant of alpine meadows, rising to a height of three thousand meters above sea level. The greens of the plant, containing vegetable protein, are eaten with pleasure by herbivores living in the mountains.
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