2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Crimson clover, or Blood-red clover (Latin Trifolium incarnatum) - a herbaceous plant with bright inflorescences, which is a representative of the genus Clover, ranked by botanists in the legume family (lat. Fabaceae). Bright heads of inflorescences and very decorative leaves make the plant attractive for decorating gardens and flower beds. As a plant of the legume family, Crimson Clover acts as a soil healer, enriching it with nitrogen. The nectar of the flowers attracts bees, which produce excellent, healing honey.
What's in your name
The plant owes its Latin name "Trifolium incarnatum" to the appearance of its leaves and flowers. The word "Trifolium" ("Shamrock") reflected the love of the leaves to combine three pieces on one petiole, and the species name "incarnatum" reflected the blood-red color of flowers collected in a spectacular capitate inflorescence.
Description
Crimson clover is an annual plant that manages to go through a full vegetation cycle in one warm season. The plant is a frequenter of meadows, forest edges, and also decorates the sides of European roads.
The height of the plants varies from twenty to fifty centimeters, showing the world the stems that can branch at the base. On long petioles there are small oval-shaped leaves gathering on one petiole of three, the so-called "trifoliate leaves". The well-defined veins of the leaf plate give the leaves a decorative look. The surface of the leaves is hairy. The apex of the leaflets is fibrous or truncated. The leaves are rich in vegetable protein and are eaten with pleasure by domestic and wild herbivores.
From spring to summer, the plant is decorated with bright red fragrant inflorescences collected from miniature moth flowers. The elongated inflorescence head is very effective and can decorate any flower garden. Each flower has five petals. Unlike other flower species, the largest top petal, called the "sail" or "flag," curls forward rather than sticking out vertically.
The fruit is a bean, typical for plants of the legume family.
Usage
Although this type of Clover has the name "Italian Clover", it is held in high esteem by the British living in the south of Great Britain. Friendly spring shoots give a good harvest of green forage, rich in proteins, which is eaten with appetite by livestock. They prepare food for future use, only after mowing the plant does not grow again.
The spectacular appearance of the plant is used in the decoration of gardens and flower beds. However, the rapid growth of Crimson Clover is able to suppress other ornamental plants, and therefore the sown Clover requires close attention of the grower, who shortens its agility.
Crimson clover, like other plants of the legume family, heals the soil by enriching it with nitrogen. The plant possesses this ability thanks to microorganisms, which the Clover gives shelter to on its roots. In the process of their vital activity, these microorganisms fix nitrogen from the air, leaving it in the soil. In addition, the plant protects the soil from erosion.
Like other types of clover, blood red clover is friends with bees, sharing its flower nectar with them in exchange for pollination of flowers. The honey from the flower nectar of this type of Clover has a high quality and healing properties.
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