Trifolium repens
- noun
- Specialized
- Trifolium repens is often used as ground cover in parks and gardens.
Examples
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I found a patch of Trifolium repens in my garden.
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Farmers plant Trifolium repens to improve soil nitrogen levels for future crops.
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Children sometimes search Trifolium repens patches for rare four-leaf clovers.
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The bees love the flowers of Trifolium repens.
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The garden was full of Trifolium repens, giving it a vibrant green color during the summer.
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Cows grazed happily in the field, where Trifolium repens provided nutritious ground cover for them.
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Homeowners often choose Trifolium repens for their lawns because it requires less water than traditional grass.
Synonyms
A short plant with round leaves and small white or pink flowers often eaten by farm animals
A low plant with three small leaves and white flowers that spreads across the ground
Surface Forms
Morphology
Trifolium + repens
The binomial 'Trifolium repens' follows botanical genus + species naming, and since 'Trifolium' is explicitly a clover genus a learner who knows that would infer it refers to a type of clover. However 'repens' is a Latin species epithet (not listed here) and not transparent to a B1 English learner, so the full specific meaning ('white/creeping clover') is not predictable from the constituents alone.
Etymology
Trifolium repens comes from Latin words: Trifolium meaning 'three-leaved' and repens meaning 'creeping'. The name gives a clear picture of a low plant that creeps across the ground with three-part leaves, so it fits the common white clover you find in lawns and pastures.