Status: Exotic
Synonyms:
None
Trifolium repens is in town lawns as well as at higher elevations in moist meadows. It is spreading, and the leaves are trifoliate with denticulate leaflets. The white flowers are present in globose heads.
As with many Fabaceae, this species has members of the Rhizobium group of nitrogen-fixing bacteria forming colonies within root nodules that keep the oxygen-sensitive nitrogenase enzymes within the bacteria sequestered away from oxygen producing metabolism and from the atmosphere.
Please click on an image for a larger file.
Trifolium repens, photo Russ Kleinman, Bill Norris, & Mark Donnell, Mogollon Mtns., Bursum Road at Redstone trailhead, Aug. 5, 2007
Trifolium repens, photo Russ Kleinman, San Francisco Mtns., Rte. 180 near AZ border, May 14, 2009
Trifolium repens, nitrogen fixing root nodule, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, WNMU campus, Global Resource Center lawn weed, November 7, 2017
Trifolium repens, nitrogen fixing root nodules, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, WNMU campus, Global Resource Center lawn weed, November 7, 2017
Trifolium repens, nitrogen fixing root nodules (size comparison to thumbnail), photo Elizabeth Sorells, WNMU campus, Global Resource Center lawn weed, November 7, 2020
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