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