SPECIES DESCRIPTION
MELILOTUS ALBUS

Family and Genus:- See- LEGUMINOSAE

Common Names:- White melilot

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Melilotus (Gr) Honey-clover. A name used by the Greek academic
Theophrastus and refers to melilot's attractiveness to honeybees.
                  Albus (L) Bright, dead-white.
               
General description:- Erect subglabrous, annual or perennial.

Stems:-
1) 50-150 cm with slender branches.

Leaves:-
1) Leaflets, narrowly elliptical, shallowly serrate.
2) Stipules, setaceous, entire.

Flowers:-
1) Numerous, short-pedicellate in slender, lax, racemes 4-12 cm.
2) Corolla, 4-5 mm, white:
    a) wings and keel shorter than the standard.

Fruit:-
1) Legume, 3-5 mm, ellipsoid to obovoid, reticulately or transversely veined,
    glabrous.

Key features:-
1) Corolla, white.
2) Raceme, not very dense.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Roadsides, fallow fields, deciduous scrub 0-800 m.

Distribution:- Fairly common N & C Mainland Greece. a widespread Euro-Siberian
species, frequently introduced elsewhere. Rare on Crete currently known from only
one location.

Flowering time:- Mainly May-July.

Photos by:- Uta Vrasna