''Trifolium breweri'', which has the common names forest clover and Brewer's clover, is a perennial

clover Clovers, also called trefoils, are plants of the genus ''Trifolium'' (), consisting of about 300 species of flowering plants in the legume family Fabaceae originating in Europe. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution with the highest diversit ...

that is native to mixed

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

forests and coastal

coniferous Conifers () are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a sin ...

forests in Southern

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

and

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. It belongs to the family

Fabaceae Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomen ...

, known for containing

pea Pea (''pisum'' in Latin) is a pulse or fodder crop, but the word often refers to the seed or sometimes the pod of this flowering plant species. Peas are eaten as a vegetable. Carl Linnaeus gave the species the scientific name ''Pisum sativum' ...

s and other

legume Legumes are plants in the pea family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seeds of such plants. When used as a dry grain for human consumption, the seeds are also called pulses. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consum ...

s. Its genus, ''

Trifolium Clovers, also called trefoils, are plants of the genus ''Trifolium'' (), consisting of about 300 species of flowering plants in the legume family Fabaceae originating in Europe. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution with the highest diversity ...

'', which translates to “three leaf”, has a cosmopolitan distribution; the densest of which is found in the Northern Hemisphere.

Description

''Trifolium breweri'' is a mat forming

perennial In horticulture, the term perennial ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. It has thus been defined as a plant that lives more than 2 years. The term is also ...

herb that grows upright or decumbent in form, with dense, hairy herbage. The leaves are

cauline A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, fl ...

, each with three

obovate The following terms are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade is divided into two or more leaflets) ...

leaflets that are generally 5–20 mm, and can be either entire or serrate. The

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

umbel UMBEL (Upper Mapping and Binding Exchange Layer) is a logically organized knowledge graph of 34,000 concepts and entity types that can be used in information science for relating information from disparate sources to one another. It was retired ...

-like with 5-15 flowers, and is often turned to the side. The flowers are small, bilaterally symmetrical, and range from yellowish white to pink-lavender. Flowers consist of a five lobed, hairy calyx, petals are separate, and the corolla is

papilionaceous Papilionaceous flowers (from Latin: ''papilion'', a butterfly) are flowers with the characteristic irregular and butterfly-like corolla found in many, though not all, plants of the species-rich Faboideae subfamily of legumes. Tournefort sugge ...

. The banner petal is

lanceolate The following terms are used to describe leaf plant morphology, morphology in the description and taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade ...

, wing petals are narrow and oblanceolate to oblong, wing tips and keel tips are obtuse or rounded. They have diadelphous

stamen The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...

s, nine of which are united and one free. After pollination a fruit containing one seed is exserted from corolla.

Habitat

''Trifolium breweri'' is a highly adaptive plant that thrives in mixed evergreen forests and coastal coniferous. It can also survive in open areas and even roadsides at elevations between 200m-1800m.USDA Plants Database
/ref>

Distribution

''Trifolium breweri'' is found in most of

Eastern Norway Eastern Norway (, ) is the geographical region of the south-eastern part of Norway. It consists of the counties Oslo, Akershus, Vestfold, Østfold, Buskerud, Telemark, and Innlandet. Eastern Norway is by far the most populous region of Norw ...

, southern Oregon and California. It grows in the Klamath Range, Cascades Range and

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

Conservation

This plant is considered to be secure within its range.

Recent research

There was a study done about New World clovers found in mountainous regions done in 2013. ''Trifolium breweri'' is mentioned briefly as being basal within the ''Involucrarium''

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

with some of the South American species that were studied. Another study done on the molecular

phylogenetics In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

of the clover genus mentions ''Trifolium breweri''. 218 species of ''Trifolium'' were collected and sequenced in California. The results of the study were consistent with a

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

origin of the genus, probably in the

Early Miocene The Early Miocene (also known as Lower Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages: the Aquitanian age, Aquitanian and Burdigalian stages. The sub-epoch lasted from 23.03 ± 0.05 annum, Ma to ...

. They believe that all of the New World species had a single origin, while the species of

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

originated from three separate dispersal events.

References

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment - ''Trifolium breweri''''Trifolium breweri'' - Photo galleryA Morphological Analysis of the Trifolium Amiable Kunth Species Complex in South America
*
Trifolium breweri S. Watson: Forest Clover
Discoverlife.org {{Taxonbar, from=Q5232340 breweri Flora of California Flora of Oregon Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Flora without expected TNC conservation status