Trifolium repens L.
Family: Fabaceae
Pertinent Synonyms & Notes (particularly those used in California; go to GRIN for other synonyms)
none
Pertinent Common Names (particularly those used in California; go to GRIN for other common names)
white clover
Primary Disseminule Types
fruit (not likely to be directly dispersed to grape bunches), seed
Description (diagnostics are in brown)
Fruit an indehiscent pod that sometimes breaks apart, oblong, straight, 4–5 mm long, 2–5-seeded, brown, glabrous, with persistent calyx.
Seed irregularly triangular-ovate to heart-shaped in outline with a distinct peripheral notch, somewhat compressed, cross-section ovate to bilobal due to shallow grooves on either face of the seed which mark the separation of radicle from cotyledons (the radicle side is smaller and thinner), 0.8–1.6 mm long x 0.8–1.2 mm wide x 0.5–0.7 mm thick. Surface dull to semiglossy, finely reticulated (at very high magnification), dull yellow to orangish-brown with a darkened area over the tips of the cotyledons (“lens”).
Hilum in notch, round, 0.1–0.15 mm diameter, whitish with a round to slit-like opening near its center.
Similar Species
Similar Species Comparison Chart
Risk Assessment (codes in yellow or red indicate cause for concern; assessments are current as of mid-2011; click AUQP, NZBORIC, or NZBPI for access to the most recent versions of these databases and possible assessment changes)
AUQP, NZBORIC, NZBPI