Kate's Mountain CloverTrifolium virginicum
A prostrate perennial herb, 4-6 inches tall with trifoliate leaves and one inch globular clusters of whitish yellow flowers. The short sparsely hairy stems grow from a stout, deep taproot. Leaflets are distinctive, linear 0.6-2.4 inches long, 3-7 times as long as wide and slightly silky beneath.Lower stipules are scarious and quite or nearly clasping. The leaves are very distinctive. Flowering is from May to June.
Dry open woodlands, barrens, and outcrops. Infrequent and local in the mountains; rare in the Piedmont. Long thought to be a strict shale-barren endemic, and still by far most common on shale substrates. In recent years, however, rare occurrences have been documented on Ridge and Valley calcareous sandstone and limestone, Blue Ridge metabasalt, and diabase and ultramafic rocks of the Piedmont.
