The Red Clover is as well known as the Buttercup. It grows all summer in
every hayfield. Sometimes the flowers are large and showy, and sometimes
they are quite small.
The Red Clover is a member of the Pea family, though at first you may
not think that the flowers are at all like those of the Broom or the
Rest Harrow. These flowers grow in a round head, thirty or forty of them
close together at the end of the flower-stalk.
If you pull a single flower apart from the others and separate the
petals, you will see that they are shaped in the same way as those of
the other Pea plants.
You find one large standard petal which stands erect, rather a long,
narrow petal in this plant. Then there are two side petals for the
'wings,' and two front petals joined together so as to form a tiny boat,
and in this boat the stamens and seed-vessel are hidden.
These petals are a pale pinky-red, and each flower is set in a green
calyx-cup edged with five long teeth.
The leaves of the Red Clover are 'Trefoils'; that means that they grow
in groups of three. Each group has a short stalk, and there are curious
yellow markings in the centre of each oval leaf. The edges are smooth,
and the leaves are covered with fine downy hairs.