Botanical name: Trifolium repens
Folk names: Lucky clover, bee-bread
Sun or shade
Perennial, flowers May to October

Decorative merit: White globose flowers 3cm long, forming oval clusters, held on hairy stems with grey-green, oval to elliptical leaves marked with a pale ‘V’. Lower growing than red clover, with a creeping, sprawling habit.

Where: Lawns, mini meadows, front of borders and wild patches. Good for filling in cracks and corners or as ground cover – will spread by stolons to increase year on year.

Wildlife: High-quality pollen and nectar loved by all kinds of bumblebees. Its trefoil leaves are a caterpillar foodplant of the common blue butterfly.

Culture: There’s a wealth of lore, legends and symbolism about this plant. The white flowers can be pulled out of the heads and sucked for a bead of honey. Look out for the lucky four-leaved clover which was seen as a powerful talisman.

Pea family relative of birdsfoot trefoil and red clover.

Donate seeds to Exeter Seed Bank