NEN Gallery

This plant of the Pea family grows to 10-40cm tall, with grey green leaves and oval pink-purple flower heads. It can be used to make wine and was used to produce a syrup to help whooping cough. The leaves, particularly the rare 4 leaved clovers were worn to bring luck and ward off witches and warlocks. It grows in meadows, pastures, roadsides and grassy banks and flowers from May to September. Dead flowers stay on the fruiting head concealing small seed-pods. Clover is also cultivated as animal fodder and to enrich soil as it can fix nitrogen from the air into salts which plants can absorb. It does this by using bacteria housed in tiny nodules on the roots of the plant. Picture taken at Stevington, Bedfordshire 2nd June 2006