Trifolium lappaceumL.

burdock clover

WFO wfo-0000213022 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Trifolium lappaceum, photographed by Mehdi Chetibi
fig. a Mehdi Chetibi, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-06-21 / obs. 138798837
Trifolium lappaceum, photographed by David Delon
fig. b David Delon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 137735542
Trifolium lappaceum, photographed by Santiago Martín-Bravo
fig. c Santiago Martín-Bravo, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 130472604
Trifolium lappaceum, photographed by Eleftherios Katsillis
fig. d Eleftherios Katsillis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 123470252
Trifolium lappaceum, photographed by Sam Kieschnick
fig. e Sam Kieschnick, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 3639192
Trifolium lappaceum, photographed by Sam Kieschnick
fig. f Sam Kieschnick, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 7902205
Trifolium lappaceum, photographed by John Kees
fig. g John Kees, CC0 1.0 / obs. 198503709
Trifolium lappaceum, photographed by John Kees
fig. h John Kees, CC0 1.0 / obs. 197131086

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 36 botanical countries

Regions where Trifolium lappaceum is native: Algeria, Azores, Canary Is., Libya, Madeira, Morocco, Tunisia, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Gulf States, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Palestine, Sinai, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Albania, Baleares, Bulgaria, Corse, France, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Krym, NW. Balkan Pen., Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Türkiye-in-Europe AlgeriaLibyaMoroccoTunisiaCyprusEast Aegean Is.Gulf StatesIranIraqLebanon-SyriaNorth CaucasusPalestineSinaiTadzhikistanTranscaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanUzbekistanAlbaniaBulgariaCorseFranceGreeceItalyKritiKrymNW. Balkan Pen.PortugalSiciliaSpainTürkiye-in-Europe AzoresCanary Is.MadeiraBalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Trifolium lappaceum, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Baleares BAL
Bulgaria BUL
Corse COR
France FRA
Greece GRC
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
Krym KRY
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Portugal POR
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Cyprus CYP ASIA-TEMPERATE
East Aegean Is. EAI
Gulf States GST
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Lebanon-Syria LBS
North Caucasus NCS
Palestine PAL
Sinai SIN
Tadzhikistan TZK
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
Uzbekistan UZB
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Azores AZO
Canary Is. CNY
Libya LBY
Madeira MDR
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 454 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -0.8 °C 4.8 °C 10.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 24.5 °C 29.6 °C 34.0 °C
Annual rainfall 560 mm 912 mm 1,507 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 4 mm 119 mm 305 mm

It is found where winters bring light frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 454 research-grade observations of Trifolium lappaceum that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 12 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Trifolium barbeyi Gibelli & Belli
  • Trifolium carteiense Coincy
  • Trifolium issajevii Khalilov
  • Trifolium lappaceum subsp. adrianopolitanum Velen.
  • Trifolium lappaceum subsp. brevidens (Halácsy) H.Lindb.
  • Trifolium lappaceum subsp. lappaceum
  • Trifolium lappaceum var. brachyodontulum Hausskn.
  • Trifolium lappaceum var. carteiense (Coincy) Pau
  • Trifolium lappaceum var. rhodense (Pamp.) Rech.f.
  • Trifolium nervosum C.Presl
  • Trifolium rhodense Pamp.
  • Triphylloides rigida Moench

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.