MELILOTUS OFFICINALIS

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.

Officinalis (L) Officinal medicine.

General description:- Decumbent or erect, branched biennial

Stems:-

1) 15-40 cm tall, sulcate, appressed-pubescent.

Leaves:-

1) Leaflets, oblanceolate, serrate in the upper half or third.

2) Stipules, entire, lanceolate, acuminate.

Flowers:-

1) Raceme, 8-20-flowered, c. 10 mm at anthesis, elongating and lax in fruit.

2) Corolla, c. 4 mm, yellow,

a) standard, equalling the wings and keel.

3) Ovary, and young legume pubescent.

4) Style, often deciduous.

Fruit:-

1) Legume, when mature, 2-3 mm, subglobose, reticulate-rugose, with a straight

beak; brown when ripe, usually 1-seeded.

Key features:-

1) Raceme, 8-20-flowered,

2) Ovary, and young legume glabrous.

3) Legume, with indistinct transverse veins.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Roadsides, hedges, deciduous scrub, ruderal habitats. 0-1200 m.

Distribution:- Fairly common in N Mainland Greece scattered elsewhere. A

widespread Euro-Siberian species, Records from Crete may represent casual

occurrences.

Flowering time:- May-July.

Photos by:- Courtesy of Wiki-Commons