Red Clover - Trifolium pratense

Red Clover
Trifolium pratense L.

Family: Fabaceae, Pea
Genus: Trifolium

Description
Plant height: 20-60 cm tall.
Growth habit: short-lived perennial from woody taproot.
Stems: several, erect or creeping, widely branched,
sparsely soft-hairy.

Leaves: alternate, with 3 egg-shaped leaflets, 2-6 cm
long, sparsely soft-hairy, with very small teeth, long-stalked
near base to stalkless near top. Stipules ovate to lance-
shaped, 1-3 cm long, conspicuously greenish-veined.

Flowers: pink to deep red, 13-20 mm long, spreading to
erect, 50- to 200 in terminal heads. Heads round, 25-35 mm
broad, without involucres, very short-stalked above the 2
leaves below. Calyx 1/2-2/3 as long as the corolla, short-
hairy, the teeth needle-shaped, with longer, straight hairs.
The 2 upper teeth about equal to the tube, the lower 3
nearly twice as long.
Flowering time: June-October.

Fruits: small pods, mostly 2-seeded.

Distribution
Mosty on disturbed or cultivated ground, plains to montane
zone, in most parts of MT except the eastern. A European
species, now widely introduced throughout much of w. U.S.

Edible and Medicinal plant: see below.

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Contents
Identification
English Names Index
Scientific Names Index
Family Index

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Edible Uses:
Leaves and young flowering heads of red clover are edible, raw or cooked. The young leaves are best harvested before the plant flowers, and are used in salads, soups etc. They can be used as a vegetable, cooked like spinach. The leaves taste best if cooked. They can be dried, powdered and sprinkled on foods. The seeds can be sprouted and used in salads. The seeds contain trypsin inhibitors, which can interfere with certain enzymes that help in the digestion of proteins. The trypsin inhibitors are usually destroyed if the seed is sprouted. Flowers and seed pods has been dried, ground into a powder and used as a flour. Young flowers can also be eaten raw in salads. The root of red clover can be eaten if it's cooked. A delicate sweet herb tea can be made from the fresh or dried flowers. The dried leaves impart a vanilla flavor to cakes etc.
The plant should not be used excessively for the reason that long-term ingesting have caused bloat, congenital joint laxity and dwarfism in animals. Isoflavones, which are glycosides, can occur in red clover as well. Isoflavones are plant estrogens that can cause infertility problems in livestock.

Medicinal Uses:
Red clover was used medicinally by the Algonquin, Cherokee, Iroquois, Rappahannock, Shinnecock, Shuswap and Thompson Indians. Widely introduced and cultivated, it is a very important herb for use in regard to women’s health. It is a sweet, cooling, alterative, phytoestrogenic herb that relaxes spasms and has diuretic and expectorant effects. It is recommended for bronchitis, leprosy, and syphilis. It is used internally for skin complaints (especially for eczema and psoriasis), cancers of the breast, esophagus, ovaries & lymphatic system, chronic degenerative diseases, gout, whooping cough, and dry cough.
Clover tea, made from flowering tops, has been used to stimulate liver and gallbladder activity and is taken for constipation and sluggish appetite. A poultice of the plant can be used for athlete’s foot and other skin problems. Dried clover blossoms were put in with soups and stews, where they added vitamins and minerals and a hint of sweetness from their honey.