Red clover: a profile
- Botanical name: Trifolium pratense
- Popular names: meadow clover, honey flower, field clover, bumblebee lust
- Plant family: legume
- Genus: clover
- Origin: native plant
- Distribution: Europe, Asia
- Annual or multi-year: multi-year
- Height: up to 70 cm in cultivation, approx. 40 cm in nature
- Flowering period: April to October
- Flowers: red or pink, up to 100 individual flowers, inflorescences up to 2 cm in diameter
- Fruits: pods 2 to 5 mm long, brown
- Leaves: 3 leaves per stem, 1.5 to 6 cm, smooth-edged, white spot in the middle
- Root: taproot, up to 2 m deep
- Propagation: seeds, runners
- Use in kitchen: sprouts, flowers for salads, tea
- Use as a medicinal plant: Herbal tea for menopausal and menstrual problems
- Use as a useful plant: forage, green manure
- Ecological benefit: good bee pasture
- Toxicity: not toxic
- Winter hardiness: absolutely hardy
- Preferred location: sunny to slightly shady, nutritious, moderately moist soil
Uses of red clover in the kitchen
The most common Red clover sprouts used in the kitchen. They are grown in sprouting devices and, like cress, eaten as a topping on bread or in a salad. The taste is less pronounced than that of cress.
also read
- Red clover is edible - red clover goes well with this food
- Medicinal and useful plant meadow clover - a profile
- Red clover has a long flowering period
The red flowers are also edible and taste mild and only slightly aromatic. They add color to flower salads and soups. They are also used as decoration.
Use as a medicinal plant
Red clover is a medicinal plant that has been used in naturopathy since ancient times. It contains a number of active ingredients that are used, among other things, to treat inflammation and high blood lipid levels.
One of the special features of red clover is its high proportion of plant-based estrogens, which are usually taken as tea or in capsule form to relieve menopausal symptoms. So far, however, there are no reliable studies that could actually prove the effect.
Fighting red clover is difficult
Red clover is not without good reason viewed as a very annoying weed in the garden. Once it has spread out in the beds or on the lawn, it is hardly closed fight.
If growing in the garden is desired, it should be very deep Root lock to be taken care of. In addition, pods must not develop from the flowers in order to prevent self-sowing.
It is safer to use red clover for the kitchen in pots to sow. However, they have to be very deep because of the long tap roots. There are germinating devices for growing sprouts, so that a sowing is not absolutely necessary in the garden.
Tips
Like all plants from the legume family, red clover must not be grown outdoors Locations be sown, on which other representatives of the plant family have previously stood. For at least three or even four years, the place should not be occupied with legumes.
