Melilotus officinalis
Fabaceae
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: Early Summer, Mid Summer, Late Summer
- Flower Form: Pea flowers, compound leaves
- Life Cycle: Annual, Biennial, Perennial
- Height: 20–40 inches
- Habitat: Meadow
- Found In: Mt. Rainier NP, N Cascades NP, Olympic NP, Siskiyous, Steens, Wallowas
- Native: No
