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Trifolium pratense

Perennial

HomePerennialTrifolium pratense

Meadows, pastures and other grassy places, especially on calcareous soils. Usually found on circumneutral soils.

Family: Fabaceae
Height: 0.6 m / 2 ft
Sun
Light, Medium and Heavy Soil
Moist

Plant Rating

Edible Uses: 3 of 5
Medicinal Uses: 3 of 5
Other Uses: 4 of 5

Native Habitat

Red Clover Trifolium pratense native habitat is Meadows, pastures and other grassy places, especially on calcareous soils. Usually found on circumneutral soils.

Edible Uses

Leaves and young flowering heads - raw or cooked. The young leaves are harvested before the plant comes into flower, and are used in salads, soups etc. On their own they can be used as a vegetable, cooked like spinach.The leaves are best cooked. They can be dried, powdered and sprinkled on foods such as boiled rice. The leaves contain 81% water, 4% protein, 0.7% fat, 2.6% fibre and 2% ash. The seed can be sprouted and used in salads. A crisp texture and more robust flavour than alfalfa (Medicago sativa). The seeds are reported as containing trypsin inhibitors. These can interfere with certain enzymes that help in the digestion of proteins, but are normally destroyed if the seed is sprouted first. Flowers and seed pods - dried, ground into a powder and used as a flour. The young flowers can also be eaten raw in salads. Root - cooked. A delicate sweet herb tea is made from the fresh or dried flowers. The dried leaves impart a vanilla flavour to cakes etc.

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