Montana Field Guide

Hollyleaf Clover forms clumps with many stems that are ca. 15 cm high and arising from a branched rootcrown and a stout taproot. The leaves arise from the base of the stems and have membranous appendages that are 5-15 mm long at the base and which remain as shreds on the rootcrown. Each leaf has three ovate leaflets that are 5-20 mm long with sharply toothed margins. The herbage is sparsely covered with straight, appressed hairs. Three to 15 spreading to nodding flowers are borne in loose clusters at the ends of peduncles, which are usually shorter than the leaves. The light yellow to flesh-colored flowers are 8-14 mm long and have a hood-shaped upper petal, or banner, and two narrow, separate petals on the side (wings); the two lower petals are united into a boat-shaped petal, or keel. The densely long-hairy calyx is 1/3 to 1/2 as long as the corolla and is tubular at the base but forms 5 long, triangular teeth at the mouth. The small fruit pod usually has a single seed.

Flowering in May-July.

This is our only tufted clover without leafy stems that occurs below the subalpine zone.

Open woods and slopes, usually in dry soil of sagebrush steppe to ponderosa pine forest in the foothills to lower montane zone.

POLLINATORS
The following animal species have been reported as pollinators of this plant species or its genus where their geographic ranges overlap: Bombus vagans, Bombus appositus, Bombus auricomus, Bombus bifarius, Bombus borealis, Bombus centralis, Bombus fervidus, Bombus flavifrons, Bombus frigidus, Bombus huntii, Bombus melanopygus, Bombus mixtus, Bombus nevadensis, Bombus rufocinctus, Bombus sylvicola, Bombus ternarius, Bombus occidentalis, Bombus pensylvanicus, Bombus bimaculatus, Bombus griseocollis, Bombus impatiens, Bombus insularis, Bombus suckleyi, Bombus bohemicus, Bombus flavidus, and Bombus kirbiellus (Plath 1934, Hobbs 1966, Macior 1974, Heinrich 1976, Bauer 1983, Thorp et al. 1983, Mayer et al. 2000, Rao and Stephen 2007, Wilson et al. 2010, Colla and Dumesh 2010, Colla et al. 2011, Koch and Strange 2012, Koch et al. 2012, Miller-Struttmann and Galen 2014, Williams et al. 2014).

STATE THREAT SCORE REASON
Reported threats to Montana's populations of Hollyleaf Clover include impacts due to noxious weeds, and potential impacts from firewood gathering and recreation activity (MTNHP Threat Assessment 2021). Spotted Knapweed (Centaurea stoebe) occurs with low density at some populations with slight negative impacts. Noxious weed populations have potential to expand with greater negative impacts following ground disturbances that expose bare soil, such as firewood gathering and recreation activity. Information about the scope, severity, and timing of impacts from firewood gathering and/or recreational activities is needed to assess their contribution to impacts.