Melilotus albus Medik.
sweet clover
Erect annual or biennial up to 2.5 m high; stems almost glabrous or sparsely to moderately hairy in upper parts. Lvs almost glabrous but sparsely hairy when young; petioles c. 5-25 mm long; leaflets oblong- elliptic to obovate, obtuse to acute, mucronate, obtuse to cuneate at base, serrate, c. 10-30 mm long; stipules linear-lanceolate, entire. Racemes lax and slender, up to 25 cm long at fruiting; fls numerous. Peduncles > petioles. Calyx ± glabrous to sparsely hairy; calyx teeth = or < tube, narrowly triangular. Corolla white, 4-5 mm long; wings ± = keel. Pod glabrous, reticulately veined, 3-5 mm long, 1-2-seeded; seeds light brown, 2-3 mm long.
N.: local in Hawke's Bay and Wellington Provinces; S.: Nelson City, local in Marlborough, Canterbury, and Otago, also collected from Gorge Creek (Southland).
Europe, Asia 1872
Dry waste places and cultivated land.
FL Sep-Apr.
Poisonous (Connor 1977).
M. albus is similar to M. officinalis but is distinguished by the white corolla and reticulately veined pods (Fig. 66). It has been previously known in N.Z. as M. leucantha and M. vulgaris.
