Long-Hanging Green Plants With Little Flowers Look Like Clover

Clover Plants

• Many different plants are identified as annual clovers, invasive turfgrass weeds. Black medic, Medicago lupulina, looks very much like the traditional, white-flowered clover that invades so many lawns. Black medic's flower blossoms resemble yellow clover blooms. California burclover, Medicago polymorpha, is another annual clover weed. Both plants have long, trailing stems that spring from a single taproot and leaves made up of three leaflets. White sweetclover, Melilotus alba, and yellow sweetclover, Melilotus officinalis, both grow up to 2 to 5 feet high and produce yellow or white flowers that greatly resemble other clover blossoms.

Milkwort

• Orange milkwort, Polygala lutea, blooms with bright orange flowers that resemble clover. The vivid flowers are close to the size and shape of the flowers you'd find on red clover, but the two flowers are not in the same plant family. The stems reach just under 1 foot in height, adorned with leaves that grow in a rosette pattern near the base. Because of their color and overall appearance, orange milkwort also bear a resemblance to another garden weed: dandelions. Like clover and dandelion, orange milkwort is classified as an invasive plant.

Alfalfa

• The purple flowers of alfalfa, Medicago, greatly resembles white clover flowers. Alfalfa blooms from May to October, producing purple or bluish-purple blooms that grow in clusters. The foliage, composed of three leaflets, looks like clover leaves. Alfalfa reaches up to 10 feet in height. The plant is often used as part of forage for cattle, and it has many applications in soil enrichment. Alfalfa's deep taproot may grow as long as 100 feet into the ground. Alfalfa is nutritious to animals in humans and attractive in the garden, but it also has invasive characteristics.

Clover Control

• White clovers, the the flowers that look like therm, are invasive. Hand-pull them as you find them to reduce the population and prevent them from spreading. Keeping grass thick and healthy is the best way to prevent weed infestation. Clovers and other weeds take root in sparse, weakened grass. When clover weeds persist in the yard, use pre-emergent herbicides to treat grass before weeds appear. Once the weeds are present, apply post-emergent herbicides to the grass to eradicate them.