Who among you has never gone in search of a lucky four-leaf clover? In reality, the latter is nothing more than a rare variant of the classic Clover (Trifolium repens), that it grows a little wherever there is minimal water availability.
Generalities and Botanical Framework:
The genus Trifolium belongs to the Fabaceae family (formerly Leguminosae), such as Beans, Fava beans and Mimosa. There are dozens of species of Trifolium, most of which are distributed in the Northern hemispherein temperate zones. The two most common species in Italy are the Red Clover (T. pratense) and, above all, the White Clover (T. repens); the latter is native to Europe, but is also widespread in North America and widely used as a pasture crop, both in the plains and in the mountains. In the areas closest to the tropics, however, it grows only at high altitude.
Botany and Cultivation:
The common clover owes its name to the fact that leaves (alternating) they are trifoliate, in which each of the three leaflets is oval. In the T. repens the leaflets are sprinkled with whitish patches. The species is tetraploid (4N), i.e. each chromosome is present in four copies (details on ploidy). The allele that determines the presence of four leaflets is recessive, therefore, in order for an individual to have 4 leaflets it is necessary that all four chromosomes have the recessive allele. This explains the rarity with which shamrocks are found.
The Clover is one stoloniferous herbaceous species and this feature makes it perennial, as each stem that touches the ground roots forming a new plant, allowing the species to reproduce in a vegetative (clonal) manner, expanding rapidly. However, a single plant, if it fails to root, has a two-year cycle. Trifolium repens under ideal growing conditions it reaches a height of about 30 centimeters.
The flowers are gathered in a spherical inflorescence supported by an erect stem, which raises it above the level of the leaves. Flowering, typically summer, is scalar e and i melliferous flowers are very popular with bees.
Sowing is simple and budding begins after 48 hours, continuing for about a couple of weeks. Normally 15 grams of seeds are enough for sowing 1 square meter of lawn / garden. On the market there are also varieties with reduced growth, which slightly exceed 10 cm and are ideal for having a low lawn (although it will be a challenge to avoid weeds).
Finally, let’s remember that Clovers, as well as other legumes, they are nitrogen fixers; their roots are in symbiosis with bacteria capable of “taking” the gaseous nitrogen present in the atmosphere to transform it into nitrogen salts which they partly use to grow and partly release into the soil, making it fertile and obviously rich in nitrogen.
Resistance to cold is excellent and it can grow anywhere.
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