Subalpine, alpine. Openings. Summer.
Lizard Head Trail, July 2, 2004.

Trifolium attenuatum grows in eye-catching mats, often many feet in diameter but usually just a few inches high.  Clustered flowers top a leafless stem that often reclines.  Leaves often fold inward along the long axis and are a dusky, light green.

Edward Greene (1843-1915) named this species.  "Attenuatum" is Latin for "thin, weak", perhaps referring to the weak flower stem.

Subalpine, alpine. Openings. Summer.
Lizard Head Trail, July 2, 2004.

Subalpine, alpine. Tundra. Summer.
Court House Trail, July 15, 2007.

Flowers in this photograph are faded in the dry heat of the summer of 2007, but the mat form of the plant and the narrow, three-parted leaves are evident.  Compare this plant to Trifolium attenuatum at the top of the page; they are quite similar.  T. attenuatum flowers are on taller stems; the flowers are larger and brighter pink; and the mat of leaves is often taller and wider.  T. dasyphyllum has a broader range and can be found in the northern as well as the southern Rockies, but I find that T. attenuatum is by far the more common plant in the Four Corners area.

John Torrey and Asa Gray named this plant in 1838 from a specimen collected by Edwin James on the "Summit of the Rocky Mountains [Pikes Peak]" in 1820.  (Quotation from Intermountain Flora.)  "Dasyphyllum" is Greek for "shaggy leaves".

Subalpine, alpine. Tundra. Summer.
Court House Trail, July 15, 2007.

Petal color can vary from all rose to violet-purple to white with pink wings and keel, as shown here.  The sepal teeth are long and quite narrow and pointed.

Alpine. Tundra. Summer.
Lizard Head Trail, July 6, 2005.
Sharkstooth Trail, June 28, 2007.

Trifolium nanum hugs the alpine ground with numerous, tiny, three-part leaves in a tight mat, but it has relatively few flowers, which are, however, large for the size of the plant and always in attractive masses.  Almost all the greenery in the top photo belongs to one plant which might eventually grow to about a foot in diameter.   

"Nanum" is Greek for "dwarf".

In 1820 Edwin James collected this plant on Pikes Peak and John Torrey named it in 1824.