Yours for Good Fermentables ™: Pic(k) of the Week: Red Rover, Red Rover, send Red Clover right over!

Saturday, July 15, 2023

Pic(k) of the Week: Red Rover, Red Rover, send Red Clover right over!

Wild red clover. It's a gorgeous and valuable 'weed.' At least to the eyes of a particular observer.

Trifolium pratense — commonly known as red clover— is a herbaceous species of flowering plant in the bean family Fabaceae. It is native to Europe, Western Asia, and northwest Africa, but has been naturalized in many other regions, such as North and South America.

Trifolium pratense grows 8 to 31 inches tall (20–80 cm). The flowers are dark pink with a paler base, 0.5 to 0.6 inches long (12–15 mm), produced in a dense inflorescence [cluster of flowers arranged on a stem], attractive to bumblebees.

Tolerant to drought, Trifolium pratense is widely grown as a fodder crop, valued for its nitrogen fixation, which increases soil fertility and promotes protein rich growth, and enables it to support a wide range of wildlife including deer, turkeys, and rabbits. Its flowers and leaves are edible.
— Wikipedia.

This specimen, I encountered, on 28 April 2023, in the Trailhead Community Park of the East Decatur Greenway in Decatur, Georgia, USA. The plant isn't limited to parks, however. Fecund and often ruderal, red clover doesn't discriminate over location.

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On 23 June 2023, Flickr's editors selected this image for inclusion in Flickr's daily Explore feature.

Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of images posted on Saturdays, occasionally, but not always (as is the case today), with a good fermentable as the subject.

Photo 28 of 52, for year 2023. See a hi-res version on Flickr: here.

Commercial reproduction requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.

Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10 II.