Trifolium spp.
Clover is a legume. Red and white clover are both familiar in Northeast fields and lawns, where the plant’s low growth can hide how important its roots are to the surrounding soil.1 Red clover (Trifolium pratense) is a long-established forage crop in North America, while white clover (Trifolium repens) is especially common in permanent pasture and turf.2
Red clover flowers are mildly sweet and sometimes infused, but UMN Extension advises moderation because the flowers are not easily digested.2 The flower head is a tight cluster of many small pea-family flowers rather than one simple blossom. That makes red clover a useful bridge between field crop and food ingredient: the plant is common in Northeast forage systems, while the fresh flowers read as a delicate, slightly honeyed garnish or infusion.32
The leaves and stems are more important as animal food than as a human vegetable. Red clover is valued in hay and pasture partly because it remains productive on heavier, more acidic soils where alfalfa is less dependable. White clover is shorter and more persistent in lawns and grazed ground, and its spreading habit helps explain why a plant that looks small can cover so much soil.2
Like other legumes, clover hosts nitrogen-fixing bacteria in root nodules. The bacteria convert atmospheric nitrogen into forms the plant can use, which is why clover often appears in soil-building cover-crop mixtures and why its presence changes the fertility of the surrounding field.12
Red clover is not a native New England wildflower: Maine’s extension flora describes it as introduced from Europe, but now widespread in meadows and open ground, where it flowers through much of the growing season.4 That combination of familiarity and foreign origin is worth keeping visible on a food page. The flower heads are easy to recognize, but they are not a free-for-all salad ingredient; the edible-flower guidance that treats them as an occasional infusion or garnish is a better fit than imagining the whole plant as a tender green.32
Footnotes
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University of Maine Cooperative Extension, “Plant Families for Gardeners,” 2021. ↩ ↩2
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University of Minnesota Extension, “Forage legumes,” accessed August 13, 2026. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6
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University of Minnesota Extension, “Edible Flowers,” accessed July 17, 2026. ↩ ↩2
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University of Maine Cooperative Extension, “Red clover,” updated 2019. ↩