Trifolium arvense

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Family Fabaceae

Taxonomy: Trifolium arvense L.

Synonyms: none listed in the APC 2026-07-30

Distribution (APC): WA (naturalised), SA (naturalised), Qld (naturalised), NSW (naturalised), ACT (naturalised), Vic (naturalised), Tas (naturalised)

Profiles: APC, Flora of Australia, ALA, iNaturalist, NSW Flora, SA eFlora, Vic Flora, Florabase, ATRP

Traits

Top source datasets: Cheal_2017 (5), Doherty_2021 (3), Firn_2019 (6), Mokany_2008 (67), NHNSW_2014_2 (2), NHNSW_2022 (4), NHNSW_2023 (11), NSWFRD_2014 (2), OReillyNugent_2018 (1), SAH_2022 (4), SAH_2023 (10), Standish_2019 (7), Stephens_2021 (1), WAH_2022_1 (3), WAH_2022_2 (4), WAH_2023_2 (1), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 48 traits from 134 records in 18 datasets.

Traits by category (click to expand). For categorical traits, the values are listed. For numerical traits, the mean and range are shown.

fire response

resprouting_capacity (categorical): fire_killed (3) [sources: Doherty_2021; NSWFRD_2014; Standish_2019]
post_fire_recruitment (categorical): post_fire_recruitment (1) [sources: Cheal_2017]

flower morphology

flower_colour (categorical): blue_purple (1); pink (1); white_cream (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 1.25 mm (1-1.5 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): legume (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; SAH_2023]

leaf morphology

leaf_area (numerical): 110.93 mm2 (85.98-130.76 mm2) [sources: Mokany_2008]
leaf_length (numerical): 16.57 mm (5-27 mm) [sources: Mokany_2008; NHNSW_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf_width (numerical): 10.9 mm (2-23 mm) [sources: Mokany_2008; NHNSW_2023]
leaf_dry_mass (numerical): 3.86 mg (2.5-5 mg) [sources: Mokany_2008]
leaf_mass_per_area (numerical): 447.64 g/m2 (24.9-860.98 g/m2) [sources: Firn_2019; Mokany_2008]
leaf_mass_fraction (numerical): 0.43 g/g (0.29-0.66 g/g) [sources: Mokany_2008]
leaf_dry_matter_content (numerical): 0.25 g/g (0.21-0.28 g/g) [sources: Mokany_2008]
leaf_shape (categorical): narrowly_elliptical (2); narrowly_oblong (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf_margin (categorical): entire (1); toothed (1); toothed_dentate (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): compound (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): alternate (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
leaf_inclination_angle (numerical): 37.8 deg (19-63 deg) [sources: Mokany_2008]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; SAH_2023]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (1) [sources: Mokany_2008]
plant_growth_form (categorical): herb (8) [sources: Firn_2019; NHNSW_2022; NSWFRD_2014; SAH_2022; Standish_2019; WAH_2022_1; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
life_form (categorical): therophyte (1) [sources: Mokany_2008]
life_history (categorical): annual (6); biennial (1) [sources: NHNSW_2022; SAH_2022; Standish_2019; WAH_2022_1; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (5) [sources: NHNSW_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_1; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): decumbent (1); erect (3); spreading (1) [sources: NHNSW_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2]
nitrogen_fixing (categorical): nitrogen_fixer (2) [sources: Mokany_2008; Standish_2019]
root_structure (categorical): arbuscular_mycorrhizal (1) [sources: Standish_2019]
flowering_time (categorical): nnnnnnnnyyyy (1) [sources: Stephens_2021]
seedbank_location (categorical): soil_seedbank (2) [sources: Doherty_2021; Standish_2019]
seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): long_persistent (1) [sources: Cheal_2017]
bud_bank_location (categorical): none (1) [sources: Doherty_2021]

nutrient and stable isotope

leaf_N_per_dry_mass (numerical): 44.35 mg/g (44.35-44.35 mg/g) [sources: Firn_2019]
leaf_P_per_dry_mass (numerical): 1.57 mg/g (1.57-1.57 mg/g) [sources: Firn_2019]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 1.51 mg (1.51-1.51 mg) [sources: Standish_2019]
seed_shape (categorical): globoid (1) [sources: SAH_2023]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.36 m (0.04-0.5 m) [sources: SAH_2023; WAH_2023_2]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
Mokany_2008	19	67	K. Mokany and J. Ash. “Are traits measured on pot grown plants representative of those in natural communities?”. Journal of Vegetation Science 19 (2008), pp. 119-126. doi: 10.3170/2007-8-18340.
NHNSW_2023	8	11	N. H. of New South Wales. The Plant Information Network System of The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Version 2.0.. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
SAH_2023	8	10	S. H. of South Australia. eFlora of SA, Electronic Flora of South Australia. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.flora.sa.gov.au/.
Standish_2019	7	7	R. Standish. “Unpublished data: Jarrah forest, Murdoch University”. 2019.
Firn_2019	6	6	J. Firn, J. M. McGree, E. Harvey, H. Flores-Moreno, M. Schuetz, Y. M. Buckley, E. T. Borer, E. W. Seabloom, K. J. L. Pierre, A. M. MacDougall, S. M. Prober, C. J. Stevens, L. L. Sullivan, E. Porter, E. Ladouceur, C. Allen, K. H. Moromizato, J. W. Morgan, W. S. Harpole, Y. Hautier, N. Eisenhauer, J. P. Wright, P. B. Adler, C. A. Arnillas, J. D. Bakker, L. Biederman, A. A. D. Broadbent, C. S. Brown, M. N. Bugalho, M. C. Caldeira, E. E. Cleland, A. Ebeling, P. A. Fay, N. Hagenah, A. R. Kleinhesselink, R. Mitchell, J. L. Moore, C. Nogueira, P. L. Peri, C. Roscher, M. D. Smith, P. D. Wragg, and A. C. Risch. “Leaf nutrients, not specific leaf area, are consistent indicators of elevated nutrient inputs”. Nature Ecology & Evolution 3.3 (2019), pp. 400-406. doi: 10.1038/s41559-018-0790-1.
Cheal_2017	5	5	D. Cheal. Growth stages and tolerable fire intervals for Victoria's native vegetation data sets. Fire and adaptive management, report no. 84. Victorian Government Department of Sustainability and Environment Melbourne, 2010.
NHNSW_2022	4	4	N. H. of New South Wales. The Plant Information Network System of The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Version 2.0.. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
SAH_2022	4	4	S. H. of South Australia. eFlora of SA, Electronic Flora of South Australia. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.flora.sa.gov.au/.
WAH_2022_2	4	4	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Doherty_2021	3	3	M. Doherty. “Fire Severity and Plant Community Dynamics in the Australian Alps, Southeastern New South Wales”. PhD. Australian National University, 2021. url: http://hdl.handle.net/1885/224564.
WAH_2022_1	3	3	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
NHNSW_2014_2	2	2	Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
NSWFRD_2014	2	2	B. Kenny, C. Orscheg, E. Tasker, M. A. Gill, and R. Bradstock. NSW Flora Fire Response Database, v2.1. database. NSW Department of Planning Industry and Environment, 2014.
Wenk_2022	2	2	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
OReillyNugent_2018	1	1	A. O'Reilly-Nugent, E. Wandrag, C. Catford, B. Gruber, D. Driscoll, and R. Duncan. “Measuring competitive impact: Joint-species modelling of invaded plant communities”. Journal of Ecology 108 (2018), pp. 449-459.
Stephens_2021	1	1	R. Stephens. “Unpublished data: Flowering time data from TERN plots, Macquarie University.”. 2021.
WAH_2023_2	1	1	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.