Summer Flowers of the High Alps

Unlike the greater number of Alpine plants which persist from year to year the Brown Clover is a biennial, that is to say, its life is limited to two years, and at the end of its second summer the plant dies off. It is found abundantly in the limestone districts of Switzerland between 4000 and 7000 feet, and flowers in July and August. It grows in meadows and pastures, and seems to prefer a moist, open spot, where the competition with other plants will be less severe. Thus it is met with on moraines, on the fresh soil brought down by avalanches and streams, and even on the dirt heaps around Alpine cow houses. The much-branched brownish stem bears the rather long-stalked leaves, composed of three leaflets with serrated margins and blunt points. The flower-heads, made up of numerous florets closely packed together, are at first of a golden yellow colour. As the individual flowers fade—and the lowest fade first—they become brown and scale-like and turn downwards, and the dry brown corolla remaining attached to the seed forms an important aid in its dispersal by the wind. The Brown Clover is widely distributed in the mountain regions of Central Europe. It will be readily recognised by its globular flower-heads of yellow flowers and bright green leaves made up of three leaflets, which are arranged opposite to one another on the upper part of the stem.

Trifolium spadiceum is very like the above, but is not so common. Its flower-heads become more elongated and change to a darker brown tint than those of the plant here photographed as the flowers fade.