Wild plants of Israel: Trifolium tomentosum

Trifolium tomentosum, Trifolium curvisepalum,
Woolly Trefoil, Hebrew: תלתן לביד, Arabic: كريشة الراعي

Scientific name:   Trifolium tomentosum L.
Synonym name:   Trifolium curvisepalum Taeckh.
Common name:   Woolly Trefoil
Hebrew name:   תלתן לביד
Arabic name:   كريشة الراعي
Plant Family:   Papilionaceae, פרפרניים


Location: Netanya, the Dora rain pool
Life form:   Annual
Leaves:   Alternate; compound, trifoliate; dentate or serrate
Flowers:   Violet; hermaphrodite
Flowering Period:   February, March, April
Habitat:   Batha, Phrygana
Distribution:   Mediterranean Woodlands and Shrublands, Semi-steppe shrublands, Shrub-steppes, Montane vegetation of Mt. Hermon
Chorotype:   Euro-Siberian – Med – Irano-Turanian
Summer shedding:   Ephemeral


Location: Netanya, the Dora rain pool

Derivation of the botanical name:

Trifolium, Latin tri, tres, three; folium, leaf; three-leaved.

tomentosum, densely woolly; with matted hairs.
curvisepalum, curvi, curved.
The Hebrew name: תלתן, taltan, clover, trefoil, from tlat (Aramaic) three; the clover is recalled in the Mishnah Kilayim 2:5, “[a field} of clover among which grew up…”

  • The standard author abbreviation L. is used to indicate Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778), a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, the father of modern taxonomy.
  • The standard author abbreviation Taeckh. is used to indicate Vivi Täckholm (1898 – 1978), a Swedish botanist, co-author of Flora of Egypt (1949-69), wife of Gunnar Täckholm, first professor of botany at Cairo Univeristy (1925-9), devoted most of her life to studying the flora of Egypt,inspired botanists in Egypt for some fifty years.