Species
+

Trifolium repens L.

Biôłô kòniczëna, Bolitsche, Běła źiśelina, Běły dźećel

Climate known 53 photographs
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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 repens, the white clover, is a herbaceous perennial plant in the bean family, Fabaceae.

Text from Wikipedia, “Trifolium repens”, 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, Føroyar +73
Wild records
169 in range· 67 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
876mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 89 mm (CHELSA)
Light
5–36DLI
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 (July to January and March in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 876 mm a year, wettest October at 89 mm, driest April at 60 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -3.7 °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 Amoria repens (L.) C.Presl; Trifolium humifusum Latourr., 1785; Trifolium repens f. repens; Trifolium repens var. maculatum Neuman; Trifolium repens var. repens.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (July to January and March 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 (621 mm of 876 mm) takes 8 months, July to January and March. Mean temperature moves 14.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to July and September.

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 876 mm a year, wettest October at 89 mm, driest April at 60 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

876 mm a year at the habitat, 621 mm of it July to January and March. Wettest month October at 89 mm, driest April at 60 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 674 mm to 1354 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 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 36 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 47).

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 -3.7 °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 -3.7 °C, the absolute minimum -9.5 °C, about 46 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 25.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.2 °C in February (across the envelope cells -2.4 °C to 6.9 °C), warmest day 22.3 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.7 °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: 60 to 67% 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 7 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul; mean night from 1 °C in Feb to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 876 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 143 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -9.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 25.5 °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°frost25.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-9.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 5–36RH 60–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 143 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 °C7 / 4–137 / 6–1410 / 9–1613 / 11–1717 / 15–2120 / 17–2522 / 20–2722 / 19–2719 / 17–2414 / 13–2010 / 8–167 / 5–14
Night °C1 / -3–61 / -2–73 / 1–95 / 4–109 / 7–1312 / 10–1614 / 12–1814 / 12–1812 / 10–179 / 7–145 / 1–112 / -2–8
Rain mm77 / 52–12161 / 39–9368 / 46–9760 / 44–10366 / 47–12568 / 32–11570 / 12–11671 / 17–12075 / 49–11589 / 64–13586 / 60–12985 / 54–135
DLI6 / 5–1511 / 9–2118 / 16–3029 / 25–3734 / 32–4236 / 32–4635 / 31–4729 / 26–4221 / 18–3313 / 11–237 / 5–165 / 3–13
RH %66 / 61–6964 / 59–6662 / 57–6460 / 57–6260 / 57–6260 / 57–6360 / 55–6361 / 56–6363 / 58–6464 / 61–6666 / 62–6867 / 62–70

Each figure is the median across the 143 grid cells holding the 168 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 720:3578 (53.975, -1.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -9.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 25.5 °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 143 distinct grid cells holding the 168 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 720:3578 (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 54.00_-1.250, lapse-corrected -61 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 14 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, Føroyar, Great Britain, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Azores, Madeira, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Altay, Buryatiya, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tuva, West Siberia, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, East Aegean Is., Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Turkey, Mongolia, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya· introduced: Canary Is., Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Northern Provinces, St.Helena, Réunion, Chita, Yakutskiya, Amur, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is., Magadan, Primorye, Sakhalin, Gulf States, Inner Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Jawa, New Guinea, Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, Antipodean Is., Chatham Is., Kermadec Is., New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Fiji, Easter Is., Hawaii, Aleutian Is., Alaska, Greenland, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Labrador, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, 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, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Southwest, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Chile North, Juan Fernández Is., Uruguay, Amsterdam-St.Paul Is., Crozet Is., Falkland Is., Kerguelen, South Georgia, Tristan da Cunha
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker51.489, -3.194 · in the densest population, 104 records (62% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 169 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 67 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 13 km away. 576 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 1 in-range record is placed to worse than 10 km and stays 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 169 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Trifolium repensTrifolium repensTrifolium repensTrifolium repensTrifolium repensTrifolium repensTrifolium repensTrifolium repens

Photographs: (c) Tom Norton, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) winston12345, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media 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 repens, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

PLANT REMOVALS IN PERENNIAL GRASSLAND: VEGETATION DYNAMICS, DECOMPOSERS, SOIL BIODIVERSITY, AND ECOSYSTEM PROPERTIES
David A. Wardle, Karen I. Bonner, Gary M. Barker, G. W. Yeates (1999) · Ecological Monographs
Biochemical and Molecular Genetic Aspects of Floral Scents
Natalia Dudareva, Eran Pichersky (2000) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Arbuscular mycorrhizal community composition associated with two plant species in a grassland ecosystem
Philippe Vandenkoornhuyse, R. Husband, Tim J. Daniell, Irene J. Watson (2002) · Molecular Ecology
TRANSLOCATION AND TRANSFER OF NUTRIENTS IN VESICULAR‐ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZAS
Karen M. Cooper, P. B. Tinker (1978) · New Phytologist
Achievements and Challenges in Improving Temperate Perennial Forage Legumes
Paolo Annicchiarico, Brent Barrett, E. Charles Brummer, Bernadette Julier (2014) · Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences

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 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; 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 11 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.