Clover, Rough

Information on Rough Clover

Common Name: Rough Clover
Scientific Name: Trifolium scabrum
Irish Name: Seamair gharbh
Family Group: Fabaceae
Distribution: View Map (Courtesy of the BSBI)
Flowering Period


Click for list of all flowering by month
Rough Clover is not easily confused with other wild plants on this web site.


This is quite a hairy plant species, only growing to about 25cm tall, that bears really tiny white (to pale pink) peaflowers (4-7mm long) in sessile (stalkless) clusters, mainly in the leaf axils. The trefoil leaves (4-10mm long) are hairy on both sides with veins that curve backwards. Rough Clover is found growing in areas of sparse vegetation, preferring open, sandy ground and coastal habitats. It flowers from May to July and is extremely rare, being found mainly in a few coastal locations in Counties Dublin, Cork, Waterford and Wexford. It is a native, annual species that belongs to the Fabaceae or Pea family.

I saw this species in Rostonstown in County Wexford when it was pointed out to me on a walk by the BSBI’s Vice-county Recorder for Waterford and Wexford, Paul Green.

If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre

This species is categorised in the Red Data List No. 10 of Vascular Plants (2016) as Near Threatened with its ‘future population reduction suspected, on the basis of ongoing threats to its habitat’.

Clover, Rough