Trifolium reflexumL.

buffalo clover

WFO wfo-0000174332 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Trifolium reflexum, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. a Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-06-16 / obs. 137088537
Trifolium reflexum, photographed by Katie Kucera
fig. b Katie Kucera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 78460241
Trifolium reflexum, photographed by Miranda Kohout
fig. c Miranda Kohout, CC0 1.0 / obs. 78178772
Trifolium reflexum, photographed by Miranda Kohout
fig. d Miranda Kohout, CC0 1.0 / obs. 76200818
Trifolium reflexum, photographed by er-birds
fig. e er-birds, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 187730489
Trifolium reflexum, photographed by Katie Kucera
fig. f Katie Kucera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 135504602
Trifolium reflexum, photographed by Nathan Aaron
fig. g Nathan Aaron, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 131180616
Trifolium reflexum, photographed by pamelabarnabee
fig. h pamelabarnabee, CC0 1.0 / obs. 133327728

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 26 botanical countries

Regions where Trifolium reflexum is native: Arkansas, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia ArkansasFloridaGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMarylandMississippiMissouriNebraskaNew JerseyNorth CarolinaOhioOklahomaOntarioPennsylvaniaSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasVirginiaWest Virginia District of Columbia
Native distribution of Trifolium reflexum, 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
Arkansas ARK NORTHERN AMERICA
District of Columbia WDC
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Kentucky KTY
Louisiana LOU
Maryland MRY
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
Nebraska NEB
New Jersey NWJ
North Carolina NCA
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
South Carolina SCA
South Dakota SDA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA

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.

Flowering 32 in flower of 40 examined

Peak flowering in Apr. Each bar is the share of Trifolium reflexum observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 32 of 40 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 10 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 7 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.

  • Amoria reflexa (L.) C.Presl
  • Trifolium adscendens Hornem.
  • Trifolium comosum L.
  • Trifolium platycephalum Bisch.
  • Trifolium reflexum f. glabrum (Lojac.) Isely
  • Trifolium reflexum var. glabrum Lojac.
  • Trifolium reflexum var. reflexum

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.