Like everywhere in Dordogne clovers abound. There are about twenty different species, white, pink or yellow. Hop Trefoil (Trifolium campestre) is very common and like all clovers it leaves consist of three leaflets stipulated at its base. It flowers in May and June, and if the summer is not too harsh and dry it will linger on.
Not this summer. It was rather hot and there was virtually no rain in three months. No problem, most plants in this kind of meadow do survive very well and have a full life cycle, flower, and produce seeds, before the beginning of the dry season.
See here the result. A meadow in tints of brown and grey from dried and sun-scorched plants. Yes, there is beauty in it, let's admit it...
The scorching changed the colour of the heads of Hop Trefoil, but not their shape. The Hop Trefoil flower heads are round and brown. The fruits are ripe now, but completely hidden in the dead flowers, like with other clovers the petals stay on the plant after flowering.
Some months ago. The banner - the largest petal of the butterfly-shaped flower - is folded backwards and downwards