Melilotus officinalis Lam:great favourites of the bees.The King's Clover and Its Fragrance.
Contents
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- Basic Botanical Info:Melilotus officinalis.
- Melilotus officinalis Plant Description.
- Difference between white and yellow sweet colover.
- Sweet clover and alfalfa:Classification.
- Brief History of Meliots.
- Melilotus officinalis Phytochemical and Constituents.
- Edible Uses and Medicinal Uses:Melilotus officinalis.
- Pharmacological Effects:Melilotus officinalis.
- Melilotus officinalis Uses Guide and Administration.
- Research Update:Melilotus officinalis.
Melilotus officinalis Plant Description.:
Yellow sweetclover, a biennial, occurs in open, disturbed areas throughout the state. Mature, erect plants are 1 to 3 feet (30 - 90 cm) tall with spreading branches. Small, oblong seed leaves are light green. The first true leaf is cordate or round and may have wavy edges. Mature leaves are trifoliate, like alfalfa, except with serration more than halfway from the tip of the leaflet margins. Small, yellow-flowered clusters are borne at the ends of stalks. One or two-seeded pods have dark, ovate seeds that are irregularly cross-ridged. Use hand weeding to remove plants before seeds are formed. The seeds are resistant to both soil fumigation and solarization. Two other common sweetclovers are indian sweetclover, M. indica, and white sweetcover, M. alba.
General: sweet-smelling herb, 50-300 cm tall.
Growth habit: erect annual or biennial from strong taproot, often growing in colonies.
Stems: freely branched above, hairless or with sparse, fine, flat, stiff, very short hairs.
Leaves: alternate, divided into 3 leaflets, elliptic to oblanceolate or oblong, 1.5-3 cm long, with small, sharp teeth almost to the base, almost hairless to finely flat-short-hairy. Terminal leaflet with short stalk. Stipules linear,partially joined to the leaf stalk.
Flowers: yellow, 4-6 mm long, numerous in tall, narrow clusters, 3-10 cm long, from leaf axils. Calyx teeth almost equal, narrowly lance- to awl-shaped.
Flowering time: May-October.
Fruits: pods, ovoid, slightly longer than the calyx, 3-4 mm long, with raised, netted veins, dark brown when mature, staying closed, usually with 1 seed.
Known Hazards: The dried leaves can be toxic, though the fresh leaves are quite safe. This is due to the presence of coumarin, the substance that gives some dried plants the smell of new mown hay. If taken internally it can prevent the blood from clotting.
Range: Europe - Mediterranean to E. Asia. Naturalized in Britain.
Other Common Names: Annual Yellow Sweetclover, Haisukka, Indian Sweet-clover, Small Melilot, Small-flowered Melilot, Sourclover, Steenklaver.
Annual growing to 1m by 0.6m . It is hardy to zone 6. It is in flower from June to October. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Bees. It can fix Nitrogen. We rate it 1 out of 5 for usefulness.The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and requires well-drained soil. The plant prefers neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It requires dry or moist soil.
Yellow sweetclover, a biennial, occurs in open, disturbed areas throughout the state. Mature, erect plants are 1 to 3 feet (30 - 90 cm) tall with spreading branches. Small, oblong seed leaves are light green. The first true leaf is cordate or round and may have wavy edges. Mature leaves are trifoliate, like alfalfa, except with serration more than halfway from the tip of the leaflet margins. Small, yellow-flowered clusters are borne at the ends of stalks. One or two-seeded pods have dark, ovate seeds that are irregularly cross-ridged. Use hand weeding to remove plants before seeds are formed. The seeds are resistant to both soil fumigation and solarization. Two other common sweetclovers are indian sweetclover, M. indica, and white sweetcover, M. alba.
Common along roadsides and in disturbed sites and waste areas.Flowers are about 1/4 inch long.Introduced from Eurasia. Escaped from cultivation to waste places. Flower color the only difference. Biennial with extensive taproot system; branched stems 3 to 6 ft. tall; leaves serrate all way around margin; glabrous, with awllike stipules; flowers white or yellow in narrow, erect racemes; plant contains bittertasting compound "coumarin". A derivative of this compound may inhibit blood-clotting in mammals, but rarely a problem unless sweetclover is fed as a 'moldy' dry hay. Sweetclover is infrequently cultivated as a forage, more often planted as a 'green manure' crop to provide N in crop rotations. Quite drought tolerant. Common along roadsides. Has invaded rangelands in northern Wyoming. Not very palatable to livestock, nor is it highly digestible.
Sweetclover can provide forage and is used to stabilize soil. It can become a weed problem because it is one of the first plants to appear on disturbed sites.
Reference:
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- 1.Melilotus officinalis Lam:great favourites of the bees.The King's Clover and Its Fragrance.
Article Information:
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