''Trifolium depauperatum'' is a species of

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 ...

known by the common names cowbag clover, poverty clover, and balloon sack clover.

Distribution

The plant is native to western North America from

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

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 ...

, as well as to western

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. It is a common plant of many types of habitat, including coastal prairie and mixed evergreen forest.

Description

''Trifolium depauperatum'' is a small annual herb growing upright or decumbent in form. The leaves are made up of oval leaflets up to 2 centimeters long which are smooth, toothed, lobed, or blunt-tipped. 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 ...

is a head of flowers up to 1.5 centimeters long. The flower has a pinkish purple white-tipped corolla up to a centimeter long. It becomes inflated as the fruit developed.

Subspecies

''Trifolium depauperatum'' has several varieties, which can include: *''Trifolium depauperatum'' var. ''amplectens'' — Balloon sack clover, Pale bladder clover. *''Trifolium depauperatum'' var. ''depauperatum'' — Cowbag clover. *''Trifolium depauperatum'' var. ''hydrophilum'' *''Trifolium depauperatum'' var. ''truncatum'' — Dwarf sack clover. Calflora: ''Trifolium depauperatum'' var. ''truncatum''
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References

External links

Calflora Database: ''Trifolium depauperatum'' (Cowbag clover, Dwarf sack clover, Pale sack clover)Jepson Manual eFlora (TJM2) treatment of ''Trifolium depauperatum''
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UC CalPhotos gallery: ''Trifolium depauperatum''
depauperatum Flora of California Flora of Baja California Flora of British Columbia Flora of Chile Flora of Oregon Flora of Peru Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the California Coast Ranges Natural history of the Central Valley (California) Natural history of the Channel Islands of California Flora without expected TNC conservation status Taxa named by Nicaise Auguste Desvaux {{Trifolieae-stub