Chapter 3: Clover and Some Relatives

BALL CLOVER¹⁴Trifolium nigrescens Viv., family Leguminosae
Plant:
Ball clover is a reseeding, annual, hollow-stem, creeping legume that does not root at the nodes. It reaches 18 to 36 inches high, and resembles Persian clover. It is grown to a minor degree in the Gulf Coast States and has been grown as far north as Maryland and as far inland as Missouri.
__________
¹⁴ See "Clovers, General," p. 158.

Inflorescence:
The flowers are smaller than those of white clover, highly fragrant, and highly attractive to bees. The flower heads have an average of 38 florets. Ball clover blooms over a period of 7 to 8 weeks and has a high density of blooms (840/yd2 ). Perkins (1961) counted 2,285 full to partly open florets per square yard. He also
(1960) recorded 840 mature flower heads per square yard, compared with 315 white clover and 300 crimson clover heads.

Ball clover is an excellent honey plant, and bees show a strong preference for it over other true clovers. Other bees are also attracted to it.

Pollination Requirements:
Weaver and Weihing (1960) obtained more than 100 times as much seed from caged plots with bees as from plots caged to exclude bees. They concluded that pollinating insects are necessary for seed production. Perkins (1961) stated that Òball clover is self-fertile but, like crimson, pollinators increase seed yields.Ó His observations indicated that because of its attractiveness to honey bees there should be little trouble in getting bees to visit the flowers. The desired visits per unit of flowers for maximum seed production are unknown.

Pollination Recomendations and Practices:
There are no recommendations for the use of pollinating insects on ball clover, nor is there an indication that growers take steps to utilize such insect activity to obtain maximum seed production.

LITERATURE CITED:
PERKINS, G.
1960. BALL CLOVER, TRIFOLIUM NIGRESCENS. Gleanings Bee Cult. 88: 684-685, 701.

______ 1961a. MORE ABOUT BALL CLOVER. Gleanings Bee Cult. 89: 92, 123.

______ 1961b. BALL CLOVER - LOOKS PROMISING FOR A SOUTHERN BEE PASTURE Gleanings Bee Cult. 89: 614-615.

WEAVER, N., and WEIHING R. M
1960. POLLINATION OF SEVERAL CLOVERS BY HONEYBEES. Agron. Jour. 52: 183-185.