Trifolium incarnatum L.

vernacular crimson clover — species · Fabaceae

USDA: TRIN3
GBIF: 5359378
Rank: species

crimson clover (Trifolium incarnatum) — Platephotograph · Greg PetersonCC BY-NC-SA source · iNaturalist ↗

§2Habit & range

Growth habit: Forb/herb
Duration: Annual
Group: Dicot
Family: Fabaceae Lindl.
Genus: Trifolium

§2a

Native status, by region

CAN Canada Introduced
HI Hawaii Introduced
L48 Lower 48 States Introduced

§2b

County-level range

· 2 counties across 1 state

Legend Native · 0 Introduced · 2 Both · 0 Hover a county for detail.

§3Cultivation specs · USDA

Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.

§3a

Tolerances

Drought: Low
Shade: High
Moisture use: Medium
Fire: None
Salinity: None
Anaerobic: Low
CaCO₃: None
Hedging: None

§3b

Climate & soil

Cold tolerance: -7 °F minimum
Frost-free days: 180 min.
Precipitation: 32–65 in/yr
pH range: 5.5–7.5
Root depth: 12 in min.
Fertility need: High
Soil texture: coarse, medium, fine

§3c

Form & growth

Growth form: Single Crown
Growth rate: Rapid
Mature height: 1.5 ft
Foliage texture: Fine
Foliage colour: Green
Porosity (summer): Porous
Porosity (winter): Porous
Flower colour: Red
Fruit colour: Brown
Fire resistant: No
N fixation: Medium
Toxicity: None

§3d

Reproduction

Bloom period: Early Spring
Seed abundance: High
Seed begins: Spring
Seed ends: Summer
Spread rate: Slow
Stratify: No
Seeds / lb: 149,760
Propagation: seed

§3e

Use & availability

Commercial availability: Routinely Available
Nursery stock: No
Browse palatability: High
Graze palatability: High
Palatable, human: No
Protein potential: High
Lumber: No
Christmas tree: No

§4Counties, by state

Recorded in 2 counties across 1 state.

Rhode Island view state ↗ 2 I ▾

§5Sources & provenance

USDA PLANTS

Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.

plants.usda.gov/TRIN3 ↗

GBIF Backbone

Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.

gbif.org/species/5359378 ↗

Record version

Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:

usda-plants-mt-2026-05-25

fetched 2026-05-25T18:27:19Z