What is the difference between alfalfa and clover?
Alfalfa is generally used as feed and is known as the “king of forage grass”; it not only has high yield but also excellent grass quality, and all kinds of livestock and poultry like to eat it. Alfalfa and clover look similar, and many people cannot tell them apart. Below we introduce the difference between alfalfa and clover.
Difference 1: Different types
Alfalfa is the general name for plants in the genus Medicago, which are annual or perennial herbaceous plants. Clover is the general name for many herbaceous plants with trifoliate palmate compound leaves, including certain species in the legume genera Trifolium and Medicago, and in the genus Oxalis of the family Oxalidaceae. It can be said that alfalfa is a clover, but clover is not alfalfa; they have an inclusion relationship.
Difference 2: Different height
Alfalfa grows relatively tall and can reach about 1 m; clover is much shorter, generally stopping at about 10 cm, gathering on the ground in clumps and clusters.
Difference 3: Different leaves
Alfalfa leaves are much larger than clover leaves, long and plump, in a narrow oval shape, and the number of leaves is not in groups of three; clover leaves are very small, roughly heart-shaped, and generally arranged in groups of three together.
Difference 4: Different uses
Alfalfa can be eaten, mainly the young sprouts when they turn green in early spring; it can also be used as livestock feed, and all kinds of livestock and poultry like to eat it; its nutritional value is very high, and it has the effects of clearing the spleen and stomach, promoting the large and small intestines, and expelling bladder stones. Clover cannot be eaten, but it can be used as excellent feed for livestock; it has the effects of clearing heat and draining dampness, and detoxifying and reducing swelling, and is mainly used for symptoms such as cold and fever, enteritis, urinary tract infection, urinary tract stones, and neurasthenia, while external use treats traumatic injuries, venomous snake bites, carbuncles, swellings, sores, boils, athlete's foot, eczema, burns and scalds, and other conditions.
Difference 5: Different meanings
The flower language of alfalfa: hope and happiness; it also has another flower language, which is hope, love, not despair, but hope. The first leaf of clover represents true love, the second represents health, and the third represents fame; if you possess all these things at the same time, that is good fortune.