Plancia ëd Trifolium pratense ssp. nivale

Descrission:

Slo.: alpska rna detelja - Habitat: High mountain stony pasture; calcareous ground, full sun, moist ground; near the bottom of a large snow valley, exposed to direct rain, average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 1-3 deg C, elevation 1.975 m (6.500 feet), alpine phytogeographical region. - Substratum: soil. - Comment: Clovers are very common, agriculturally important plants and well known to everybody. Nevertheless, they are interesting and very diverse genus. There are more than fifty species and subspecies of this genus growing in Slovenia. In addition, especially some of them, like Trifolium pretense, are very variable. Even worse, there exist many different looking cultivars. The members of this genus grow from low land to alpine elevations. Distinguishing among them to species level is not always simple. Also species Trifolium pretense appears in many forms, which are taxonomically treated differently by different authors. The flowers can be from snow white, dirty white, pale purple, pink, yellowish . Slovenian name 'rna detelja' translates to 'black clover', German name 'Rot-Klee' equals to English 'Red Clover'. In Austria they name it 'Schneeweisser Aplen-Klee', which means 'Snow-white Alpine Clover', although it is known that it has white flowers only in west Austria. So, flowers' color doesn't mean much regarding determination. - Even subspecies Trifulium pratense ssp. nivale can be of different colors. A better distinguishing trait for T. pretense group is apiculate, that means ending abruptly in a small, slender point (see Fig. 4.). For subspecies nivale such traits are leaflets with hairy surface and hairy, often reddish calyx with unevenly long and hairy calyx teeth, of cause, together with high elevations, where it grows. Flowers heads are surrounded by the uppermost steam leaves and have, like individual flowers, no stalks. - Ref.: (1) A. Martini et all., Mala Flora Slovenije, Tehnina Zaloba Slovenije (2007), p 307. (2) M.A. Fischer, W. Adler, K. Oswald, Exkursionsflora sterreich, Liechtenstein and Sdtirol, LO Landesmuseen, Linz, Austria (2005), p 570. (3) O. Angerer, T. Muer, Alpenpflanzen, Ulmer (2004), p 214 (4) K. Lauber and G. Wagner, Flora Helvetica, 5. Auflage, Haupt (2012), p 364.