WHITE CLOVER 



By E. A. Hollowell, senior agronomist, Division of Forage Crops and Diseases, 

 Bureau of Plant Industry 



White clover (Trifolium repens L.) is a common but often unap- 

 preciated inhabitant of pastures, lawns, roadsides, and thin wood- 

 lands. It is found widely scattered throughout the United States. 

 Occasional plants ma} 7 be found wherever there is sufficient moisture 

 to enable them to survive. An immigrant from Europe whose date 

 of entry into the United States is obscure, white clover must have 

 arrived with early settlers, and it appears to have preceded the white 

 man into the Ohio Valley and Middle Western States. 



White clover is a profusely seeding perennial legume, spreading 

 by creeping stems that root at the nodes. 



It normally grows in association with grass. Even when this 

 clover is seeded alone, grass soon encroaches and makes a luxuriant 

 growth, indicating that the presence of clover creates an ideal con- 

 dition for grass growth. For the most part, the white clover of 

 permanent pastures has not been intentionally seeded by man but 

 may have been disseminated by animals or as an impurity in other 

 field seed. When grown in mixtures with grass, it increases the 

 carrying capacity of the pastures and provides a nutritious feed 

 relished by livestock (fig. 1). 



Figure 1. — Livestock pastured on white clover. 



Between 2 and 3 million pounds of white clover seed are annually 

 consumed in the United States. About half of this amount is of 

 foreign origin; most of the imported seed comes from Poland and 

 small amounts come occasionally from other northern European 



74500° — 36 Issued October 1936 



