Species
+

Trifolium incarnatum L.

Carnation Clover, Chinese Barberry, Crimson Clover, Italian Clover

Climate known 44 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Trifolium incarnatum, known as crimson clover is a species of herbaceous flowering plant in the family Fabaceae. It is native to Eurasia.

Text from Wikipedia, “Trifolium incarnatum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Trifolium

Clovers, also called trefoils, are plants of the genus Trifolium. They are herbaceous plants growing up to 30 cm (12 in) tall. The leaves are usually trifoliate and the small flowers are reddish to white or yellow. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Clover”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Denmark, Finland, Great Britain +27
Wild records
1638 in range· 1046 open

At a glance

Warmest month
23°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
856mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 81 mm (CHELSA)
Light
5–35DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 856 mm a year, wettest October at 81 mm, driest April at 54 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -6.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Trifolium incarnatum f. albiflorum Merino; Trifolium incarnatum f. minor Barnola; Trifolium incarnatum f. roseum (Rouy) C.Vicioso; Trifolium incarnatum subsp. molinerii (Hornem.) Ces.; Trifolium incarnatum subsp. molinerii (Hornem.) Syme and 21 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (609 mm of 856 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 15.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 856 mm a year, wettest October at 81 mm, driest April at 54 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

856 mm a year at the habitat, 609 mm of it June to January. Wettest month October at 81 mm, driest April at 54 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 663 mm to 1161 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -6.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -6.0 °C, the absolute minimum -15.3 °C, about 60 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells -3.8 °C to 2.4 °C), warmest day 22.5 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -6.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 5 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Jul; mean night from 0 °C in Jan to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 856 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1509 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -15.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost36.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-15.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 5–35RH 59–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1509 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C5 / 2–86 / 4–910 / 7–1213 / 11–1518 / 15–2020 / 18–2323 / 20–2622 / 20–2619 / 17–2214 / 12–179 / 7–126 / 3–9
Night °C0 / -4–20 / -3–22 / -0–45 / 3–69 / 7–1012 / 10–1414 / 13–1614 / 12–1611 / 9–138 / 6–104 / 1–61 / -2–3
Rain mm73 / 49–9858 / 40–7766 / 46–8554 / 42–9869 / 57–11174 / 54–9574 / 50–9474 / 52–9474 / 55–10781 / 58–12479 / 56–11980 / 55–112
DLI6 / 5–1111 / 9–1618 / 16–2528 / 26–3233 / 32–3735 / 33–4134 / 32–4229 / 27–3620 / 18–2813 / 11–187 / 5–125 / 3–9
RH %67 / 62–6965 / 61–6662 / 59–6460 / 58–6259 / 58–6260 / 57–6259 / 56–6260 / 57–6262 / 59–6464 / 62–6667 / 63–6968 / 63–70

Each figure is the median across the 1509 grid cells holding the 1628 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 909:3699 (44.525, 4.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -15.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -6.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1509 distinct grid cells holding the 1628 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 909:3699 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 44.50_5.000, lapse-corrected -70 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 396 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeDenmark, Finland, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, South European Russia, East Aegean Is., Iran, Turkey· introduced: Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Azores, Madeira, Northern Provinces, Sakhalin, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, China North-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, India, Pakistan, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, Chatham Is., New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Hawaii, British Columbia, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, California, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Chile Central
Kew's description“annual” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker51.5, 5.395 · in the densest population, 1149 records (70% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1638 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1046 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 242 km away. 242 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 10 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1638 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Trifolium incarnatumTrifolium incarnatumTrifolium incarnatumTrifolium incarnatumTrifolium incarnatumTrifolium incarnatumTrifolium incarnatumTrifolium incarnatum

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) aberkov, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Amy, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Kostas Zontanos, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Trifolium incarnatum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Winter Legume Effects on Soil Properties and Nitrogen Fertilizer Requirements
Kent McVay, D. E. Radcliffe, W. L. Hargrove (1989) · Soil Science Society of America Journal
Mechanisms of Weed Suppression in Cover Crop-based Production Systems
Nancy G. Creamer, Mark A. Bennett, Benjamin R. Stinner, John Cardina (1996) · HortScience
Conserving Residual Corn Fertilizer Nitrogen with Winter Cover Crops
P. R. Shipley, Jana Messinger, Ann M. Decker (1992) · Agronomy Journal
Cover crops and nitrogen fertilization effects on soil aggregation and carbon and nitrogen pools
Upendra M. Sainju, Wayne F. Whitehead, Bharat Singh (2003) · Canadian Journal of Soil Science
Compost, Manure and Synthetic Fertilizer Influences Crop Yields, Soil Properties, Nitrate Leaching and Crop Nutrient Content
Paul R. Hepperly, Don Lotter, Christine Ziegler Ulsh, Rita Seidel (2009) · Compost Science & Utilization
Carbon and Nitrogen Mineralized from Leaves and Stems of Four Cover Crops
Miguel Quemada, M. L. Cabrera (1995) · Soil Science Society of America Journal
Nitrogen Delivery from Legume Cover Crops in No‐Till Organic Corn Production
Maria Kristina Parr, Julie Grossman, Chris Reberg‐Horton, Carrie M. Brinton (2011) · Agronomy Journal
Legume Cover Crop Contributions to No‐Tillage Corn Production
Ann M. Decker, A. J. Clark, J. J. Meisinger, F. R. Mulford (1994) · Agronomy Journal
Soil Microbial Populations and Activities in Reduced Chemical Input Agroecosystems
Miranda Kirchner, A. G. Wollum, Larry D. King (1993) · Soil Science Society of America Journal

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Trifolium 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 159 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.