Fabaceae

Melilotus officinalis

Yellow Sweetclover

Erect stems. Plant has very sweet fragrance. Leaves compound with 3 oblong leaflets, toothed along edges. Tall, open, spike-like heads of small yellow flowers, often on arching stalks mostly above leaves. Pods small, egg-shaped, with crisscrossed sculpturing. Common in hay fields, along roads in most of the United States, southern Canada. Native of Eurasia. Introduced here as a forage crop. Melilotus alba, a white-flowering weetclover with flowers slightly smaller and seedpods penciled with network of veins is indistinguishable before flowering.

• Rarity: Locally Common
• Flowering Time: All Summer
• Life Cycle: Annual, Biennial, Perennial
• Height: 20--40 inches
• Habitat: Meadow
• Found In: Siskiyous, Mt. Rainier Np, Olympic Np, Steens, N Cascades Np, Wallowas
• Native: No