Trifolium buckwestiorum

Trifolium buckwestiorum

Critically Imperiled  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Tribe: Trifolieae
Genus: Trifolium
Species: T. buckwestiorum
Binomial name
Trifolium buckwestiorum
Isely

Trifolium buckwestiorum is a rare species of clover known by the common name Santa Cruz clover.[1]

Distribution

It is endemic to California, where it is known from nine or ten small occurrences in Monterey, Santa Cruz, and Sonoma Counties.[2] It may also occur in San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Mendocino Counties,[3] but its populations are very small and easily disturbed by threats such as vehicles, development, and feral pig activity.[2]

It grows in forest, woodland, and coastal prairie habitat.[4]

Description

It is an annual herb growing upright or decumbent in form, with hairless green or reddish herbage. The leaves are made up of finely toothed, oval shaped leaflets up to 1.5 centimeters long and bristle-tipped stipules.

The inflorescence is a head of flowers roughly a centimeter wide, the flowers held in a bowl-like involucre of wide, jagged-toothed bracts. Each flower has a calyx of sepals that narrow into fine bristles and a pink corolla under one centimeter long.

References

  1. ↑ "Trifolium buckwestiorum". Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS Database. USDA. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
  2. 1 2 The Nature Conservancy
  3. ↑ Elkhorn Slough Local Plant Profile
  4. ↑ California Native Plant Society Rare Plant Profile

Further reading

  • Isley, D. (1992). Innovations in California Trifolium and Lathyrus. Madroño 39(2):90–97.


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