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Melilotus albus
Also called White Sweet-clover, Honey Clover, Bokhara Clover, White Sweetclover, Hubam Clover
White melilot is a fast-growing annual or biennial legume grown mainly as a forage, cover crop and honey plant, and it often spreads as a roadside weed. It is easy to grow in full sun and tolerates poor, dry soil.
Melilotus albus, known as honey clover, white melilot (UK), Bokhara clover (Australia), white sweetclover (US), and sweet clover, is a nitrogen-fixing legume in the family Fabaceae. Melilotus albus is considered a valuable honey plant and source of nectar and is often grown for forage. Its characteristic sweet odor, intensified by drying, is derived from coumarin.
Melilotus albus is of Eurasian origin but can now be found throughout the subtropical to temperate zones, especially in North America, and is common in sand dune, prairie, bunchgrass, meadow, and riparian habitats. This species is listed as an "exotic pest" in Tennessee, "ecologically invasive" in Wisconsin, and a "weed" in Kentucky and Quebec.
White sweetclover is native to much of Asia and southern Europe, from France and Spain to Kazakhstan and Myanmar, and also northeastern Africa.
White and yellow sweetclover are considered valuable honey plants, and the foliage and seeds are consumed by wildlife. They are frequently cultivated for livestock forage and as a cover crop.
Annual yellow sweetclover · Yellow sweetclover · Sweetclover
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Melilotus albus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
