White Prairie-clover

White Prairie-clover is one of the plants that we saw at the Beynon Ecological Preserve, SW of Drumheller, in Alberta Badland country. On 3 August 2013, a group of us drove east of Calgary to visit and record all flora and fauna found on the Beynon Ecological Preserve. This land belongs to the Nature Conservancy of Canada. I don't often see this species, as it grows only in a few places in Calgary. There was a lot of it at Beynon, along with Purple Prairie-clover, which is another plant I very rarely see. It was a fairly windy day and so many of the wildflowers were blowing in and out of the viewfinder when I was trying to photograph them, lol. Unfortunately, it's not exactly the most photogenic flower, but I need to add it to my Beynon album.

"The flower spike is about 1-3" tall and ¾" across. The small flowers form a wreath around the bottom of the spike, which moves upward as the season progresses. Each flower is about ¼" across, with 5 petals and 5 white stamens. The flowers often have a pleasant fragrance."

www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/wpr_cloverx.htm

"Beynon is primarily a private 500+ acre ecological preserve. Located within a deeply sculpted portion of the Rosebud River valley, the area is recognized as being regionally significant. Due to its unique topography, picturesque valley setting, and relative rarity in terms of biodiversity, Beynon protected its surrounding area by permanently protecting over 400 acres (1.6 km2) from development. This protection was achieved by way of an outright donation of land by Beynon's founding family, who still own most of the unincorporated area called Beynon. The Nature Conservancy of Canada were the recipients of the 400-acre (1.6 km2) land donation in 1999." From Wikipedia.

By the way, the Beynon Canyon was featured in the cemetery scene from the 1978 film Superman: The Movie.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beynon,_Alberta