I'm having a hard time with this plant. I started one indoors last Spring, as well as some that I seeded directly into the garden. The on...Read Morees that I seeded were eaten by rabbits within weeks of emerging. When I planted the one I started indoors, I put a chicken wire cage around it. It was growing well and got to be about 7" tall. I must not have secured the cage well enough, though. About a month later the cage was knocked over and it was eaten right down the to ground. It tried to grow back but didn't. At this point, I had three left that popped up later in the Spring, but they didn't grow taller than three inches by the end of the year. The flowers are amazing. I've seen them in person. If you can get them to grow without being eaten by rabbits, I imagine they are well worth adding to the garden. I'm hoping the three that I have remaining will get the chance to flower.
The flowers attract many kinds of insects, including long-tongued bees, short-tongued bees, wasps, flies, small butterflies, skippers, be...Read Moreetles, and plant bugs. The Plasterer bees Colletes albescens and Colletes robertsonii are oligoleges of this plant.
Other bee visitors include honeybees, bumblebees, Cuckoo bees, Miner bees, Leaf-Cutting bees, Green Metallic bees, and other Halictine bees. The caterpillars of the butterfly Colias cesonia (Southern Dogface) are sometimes found on the leaves, but this species often fails to overwinter successfully in Illinois. Bean Weevils (Acanthoscelides spp.) sometimes infest the seeds, while a treehopper (Vanduzea triguttata) feeds on the foliage.
Purple Prairie Clover is palatable and high in protein, therefore mammalian herbivores of all kinds eat this plant readily. It can be difficult to establish in some areas if there is an abundance of these animals
Jeffersonville, IN (Zone 6a) | August 2003 | neutral
This is purple prairie clover's second year in my garden and it still isn't doing anything. Maybe it's really slow to grow, or maybe they...Read More aren't happy for some reason. So far it's been puny.
I'm having a hard time with this plant. I started one indoors last Spring, as well as some that I seeded directly into the garden. The on...Read More
The flowers attract many kinds of insects, including long-tongued bees, short-tongued bees, wasps, flies, small butterflies, skippers, be...Read More
This is purple prairie clover's second year in my garden and it still isn't doing anything. Maybe it's really slow to grow, or maybe they...Read More