Large hop trefoil is a small erect herbaceous biennial plant growing to 10–30 cm tall.

Its yellow flowers are arranged into small, elongated round inflorescences 12–20 mm diameter, located at the end of the stem.

The closely related Trifolium campestre (hop trefoil) is a similar, but shorter, spreading, species with smaller leaves and flowers.

Trifolium aureum is native throughout Europe (in Spain only in the north-east), western and northern Asia, and the Middle East (in Ciscaucasia and western Siberia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, northern Iran, Lebanon and Turkey).

[3] Trifolium aureum is widely naturalized in North America:[3] it was first introduced to the U.S. (by way of Pennsylvania) in 1800,[citation needed] where it is now found in the western (as far north as Alaska) and eastern regions of the country, but not in the middle, or very much in the southern states.