Red Clover - Trifolium pratense

Short to tall, tufted, hairy plant. Trifoliate leaves often have a white crescent at the centre of their oval leaflets. Flowers reddish purple or pink, 12 to 15 mm, in dense, globose heads, usually solitary, unstalked.

Zigzag clover (Trifolium medium). White Clover leaves are toothed and Red Clover leaves are hairy (red hair, white teeth)!

To distinguish from Zigzag clover, the free part of  Red clover's stipules are narrowed to a bristle-like point; the free part of Zigzag's are linear to lanceolate.  Zigzag has narrower leaflets, less hairy, and they are usually unmarked

Grassy habitats, meadows, pastures, lawns roadside verges, etc.

May to September.

Perennial.

Very common throughout Britain.

Very common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 599 of the 617 tetrads.