Single Record

Participant Info

Species
Trifolium hybridum
Family
Fabaceae
CommonName
Alsike clover
Presence
YES
Status
exotic
EarliestDate
1935
LatestDate
2021
Ecosystem
basin, shrubland, foothill, montane, ruderal, urban
Geobotanical
SSanjuans, NCristos, UBasin
Counties
Alamosa, Conejos, Hinsdale, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache, Archuleta, San Juan
Passes
WildlifePreserves
Other Localities
Alamosa (town), Del Norte
Comments
Trifolium hybridum, an exotic from Europe, was found in the Upper Basin region by Ramaley as early as 1936, a collection from “Alamosa” noted as “bottom land” and “common.” There are also later collections from the Adams State University campus. Alsike clover (named after the town in Sweden where Linnaeus first found it) occupies disturbed ground such as roadsides and hiking trails, but it also has nativized along streams and in meadows, sometimes in large, dense colonies. It has spread to every state in the USA except for Texas. So far it has been recorded from the Rio Grande drainage as far as Socorro Co, New Mexico. The specific epthetic, "hybridum," was assigned by Linnaeus because he thought the species was a hybrid between red and white clover—an assumption now disproven. Note that T. hybridum is toxic to livestock.