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Melilotus officinalis
Also called Common Melilot, Ribbed Melilot, Yellow Melilot, Yellow Sweet Clover, Field Melilot, Sweetclover, Yellow Trefoil
Yellow sweetclover is a tall, fragrant annual or biennial legume with spikes of yellow flowers, native to Europe and Asia and invasive in parts of North America, Africa and Australia. It is grown mainly as a forage, cover crop and honey plant, and it is best kept in check in the wild.
Melilotus officinalis, known as sweet yellow clover, yellow melilot, ribbed melilot and common melilot, is a species of legume native to Eurasia and introduced in North America, Africa, and Australia.
Sweet clover contains coumarin that converts to dicoumarol, which is a powerful anticoagulant toxin, when the plant becomes moldy. This can lead to bleeding diseases (internal hemorrhaging) and death in cattle. Consequently, hay containing the plant must be properly dried and cured, especially in wet environments.
M. officinalis is native to Europe and Asia and has been introduced to North America as a forage crop. It commonly grows in calcareous loamy and clay soils with a pH above 6.5 and can tolerate cold temperatures and drought; it does not tolerate standing water or acidic soils, with a pH of 5.5 as the plant's lowest limit. Common places where it can be found include open disturbed land, prairies, and savannas, and it grows in full or partial sunlight. It is an invasive species in areas where it has been introduced, especially in open grasslands and woodlands where it shades and outcompetes native plant species.
The seeds are eaten by game birds, including grouse.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Melilotus officinalis 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.
