Purple clover / Trifolium purpureum / برسيم قرنفلي

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Status: Common

Purple clover is one of the 300 species of the clover genus Trifolium which belongs to the Fabaceae family. An annual, self-regenerating herbaceous plant, it grows upright, usually between 10 and 50 cm, sometimes up to a meter tall, leaves are alternate, compound, and trifoliate. Leaf margin: smooth.

Flowers are crimson in color, hermaphrodite, and flowering period from March to May.

Ecology: It grows in Batha and Phrygana environments and in roadsides, and disturbed area, it is tolerant of a variety of soil type and water logging, and it is grown for silage and hay. It is a pasture species because it produces green feed longer in the spring/summer than do other annuals. It is glycophyte in terms of salt resistance; it belongs to the Mediterranean botanical zone.

Medicinal uses: It contains glycosides, phenols, Komorinim, flavonoids, and Silitzilitim mineral acids. It is commonly used in Arab folk medicine to treat diarrhea, menstrual irregularities, skin damage, cough, rubella, and for stress, nervousness and insomnia.

Distributions: It is native to southern Europe from Portugal to Romania and Palestine, North Africa from Egypt to Morocco. The plant has also been recorded in northeast Massachusetts, around wool waste plants, where it evidently was introduced from Europe.

Distributions in Palestine: Mediterranean Woodlands and Shrublands, Semi-steppe shrublands, Shrub-steppes.


IUCN red list status: not evaluated

Local status: least concern