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Season: Greens: Spring & Summer. Flowers: Summer

Urban, Rural or Both: Both

There are four kinds of clover that I'm familiar with in Southwestern Ontario. There is Red Clover (Trifolium pratense), White Clover (Trifolium repens), Alsike Clover (Trifolium hybridum) and Yellow Clover or Black Medick (Medicago lupulina). Technically, Yellow Clover is not a true clover, but it is in the same legume (Fabaceae) family. There are other clovers, but where I am from they must be rarer, as the four above are the ones I see most of the time.

Greens:

All are edible, but don't eat much of any of them raw, or you will get a stomach ache. I like to eat a few red clover leaves raw when out on walks - I prefer the taste to the others. White clover leaves cooked makes a good green for cooked foods. Just put them in a pot, bring to a boil, simmer for 5 minutes, drain the water and put the Clover leaves in stir-fry's, or other cooked foods. The taste this way is mild. You can use the others this way as well, just cook them longer - simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Flowers:

Red Clover (Trifolium pratense) flowers are small, but very tasty and unusually sweet. Because of the beautiful purple/pink color, they make a salad look nicer. It doesn't take many to add the color to the salad. A few Red Clover and a few Dandelion flowers look fantastic on a green salad.

I see them everywhere I've been, so they should be easy to find.

My favorite use for them is when out walking, pick one, base and all, then pull out the flowers (tube shaped) and just eat them while walking. A few of them gives you more energy, and there is a thirst quenching quality to eating them.

For a nice tea, pick a good handful, pull out the flowers from the green base, put in cup, put boiling water over, and let sit for a few minutes, strain and drink. Quite sweet on its own and distinctive.

When they go brown, they are too old to eat. Hard to mistake for anything else, sweet, thirst quenching, great looking on salads, nice tea, grows almost everywhere - what more could you want from a free wild flower food?

The dried flower heads of the Alsike and White clover can ground into flour to be used with other flour. I've done it, but found the effort wasn't worth the result. My experience with the clovers boils down to this: Nibble on a couple of Red Clover leaves when out walking, eat Red Clover flowers in salads, use small amounts of White Clover leaves in other foods, and don't bother with the other two. Do more research, read other peoples ideas on the subject and make up your own mind.

Growing this plant in your home garden:

This is a very easy plant to grow at home if you want. Not usually necessary, as it can be found all over. Just wait until the flowers have turned to seed, gather and spread where you want them. There is nothing else to do.

Descriptions:

Red Clover:

• Plant Size: 20-80 cm (8-30 inches)tall
• Duration: Perennial
• Leaf Shape: Compound, Trifoliate
• Leaf Opposite or Alternate: Alternate
• Leaf Size: The leaflets are 15-30 mm (3/5 to 1 1/5 inch) long and 8-15 mm (1/3 to 3/5 inch) wide
• Leaf Margin: Entire to very finely serrated.
• Leaf Notes: fine hairs on leafs, noticeable lighter green arrow shape on top of leaf pointing to tip of leaf
• Flowers: Inflorescence of bright pink flowers each 12-15mm (1/2 to 3/5 inch) long.
• Fruit: tiny (less than 1mm wide) reddish to tan to brown seeds
• Habitat: meadows, grasslands, fields, almost any open area, not in shaded woods, most soils except acidic

• Recipe search on the web here (Google search) and here (Bing search).
• Pictures on the web here (Google images) and here (Bing images).
• USDA distribution map and plant profile here.
• The Biota of North America Program (BONAP) distribution map here. BONAP map color key here.

White Clover:

• Plant Size: low growing - the Latin name "repens" means creeping
• Duration: Perennial
• Leaf Shape: Compound, Trifoliate
• Leaf Phyllotaxis (Leaf Arrangement) on branch: Alternate
• Leaf Size: 1-2 cm (2/5 to 4/5 inch )long
• Leaf Margin: finely Serrate
• Flowers: Inflorescence of white flowers with hint of pink when older, 1.5-2 cm (3/5 to 4/5 inch) wide
• Fruit: tiny (1mm wide) yellow, tan or brown seed
• Habitat: Pastures, grassy areas, prefers alkaline clay soils

• Recipe search on the web here (Google search) and here (Bing search).
• Pictures on the web here (Google images) and here (Bing images).
• USDA distribution map and plant profile here.
• The Biota of North America Program (BONAP) distribution map here. BONAP map color key here.

Alsike Clover:

• Plant Size: Up to 1.5 meters (5 feet) tall, usually 1 meter (3 feet) or less. If large, can be multi-branched giving a tree like shape.
• Duration: Perennial, but more often live an Annual life cycle.
• Leaf Shape: Compound, Trifoliate, each leaflet almost round
• Leaf Phyllotaxis (Leaf Arrangement) on branch: Alternate
• Leaf Size: approx. 2 cm (4/5 inch) plus or minus,
• Leaf Margin: finely Serrate
• Flowers: 1.25 cm (1/2 inch) diameter Inflorescence, generally white flowers on upper part of Inflorescence, with a pink ring of flowers on lower area - variable from almost all white flowers to all pink
• Fruit: tiny (1 mm diameter) yellow-tan, tan or brown seeds
• Habitat: Roadsides, pastures, abandoned fields, near woods but not under shade of trees, not common on cut lawns as it does not tolerate repeated cutting like White Clover. In my experience in Southwestern Ontario, they grow large (1.5 meters or 5 feet) and multi-branched in alkaline, damp (not wet) sandy loam.

• Recipe search on the web here (Google search) and here (Bing search).
• Pictures on the web here (Google images) and here (Bing images).
• USDA distribution map and plant profile here.
• The Biota of North America Program (BONAP) distribution map here. BONAP map color key here.

Yellow Clover or Black Medick:

• Plant Size: Can grow up to 60 cm (24 inches)tall, but most often found creeping along the ground
• Duration: Annual, but can be Perennial if the conditions are right
• Leaf Shape: Compound, Trifoliate
• Leaf Phyllotaxis (Leaf Arrangement) on branch: Alternate
• Leaf Size: each leaflet is about 16 mm (2/3 inch) long and about 8 mm (1/3 inch) wide
• Leaf Margin: finely Serrate
• Flowers: yellow Inflorescence about 7 mm (1/4 inch) diameter
• Fruit: black seed about 1.5 to 2 mm
• Habitat: open areas, disturbed soils, full light, does very well in hard, compacted soils - that is why it is often seen creeping along sidewalks and driveways coming from cracks or edges.

• Recipe search on the web here (Google search) and here (Bing search).
• Pictures on the web here (Google images) and here (Bing images).
• USDA distribution map and plant profile here.
• The Biota of North America Program (BONAP) distribution map here. BONAP map color key here.

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