OTHER CLOVERS 411 



WHITE CLOVER ( Trifolium repens) 



488. Botany. White clover is also known as Dutch 

 clover and rarely as white trefoil. It is native throughout 

 the temperate portion of Europe and Asia, while in Africa 

 it occurs in the Azores. 



Numerous botanical varieties have been named, but 

 none of these have been of any agricultural importance. 

 A variety with purple foliage is sometimes cultivated 

 as an ornamental. The only really distinct agricultural 

 variety is Ladino clover. Individual plants of white 

 clover vary greatly so that it would be possible to secure 

 numerous varieties by selection. Work of this kind has 

 been undertaken at several places. 



489. Description. White clover is a long-lived but 

 shallow-rooted perennial. It differs markedly from red 

 and alsike clover in that the solid stems creep on the sur- 

 face of the ground and root abundantly. On this account 

 the growing point is seldom injured by mowing and graz- 

 ing, and so the growth is not interrupted. When mowed, 

 the hay consists entirely of leaves and flower stalks. The 

 leaflets hold on much better in curing than do those of red 

 clover. Single plants make a dense turf often a foot or 

 more in diameter. 



Hays at the Minnesota Experiment Station found the 

 tap root after one month to be 4| inches long and with 

 numerous side roots, and when two months old to be 2 

 feet long. At this time roots began to be found on the 

 creeping branches. The tap root is said to die in one or 

 two years. 



Werner calculated the surface area of the leaves from 

 18 square centimeters, and found it to be 172 square 

 centimeters. 



