Hexham Scent

Scientific Name:

Melilotus indicus

Photograph courtesy of Viridans Biological Databases (external link)

Other Common Names:

Annual Yellow Sweetclover, Sour Clover, Senji, Indian Clover, Small Melilot, Sweet Melilot, Common Melilot, King Island Melilot, Californian Lucerne, King Island Clover

Status:

Native to the Mediterranean and south-west Africa. Naturalised in southern States of Australia and New Zealand.

Plant Description:

Erect hairless annual forb, to about 60 cm high, usually fragrant. Leaves alternate, each composed of three leaflets, 12 – 30 mm long, attached near the tip of the stalk. The leaflets obovate, the upper ones finely toothed along the margins.

Flowers yellow and pea-like, 2 mm long, in dense narrow racemes slightly longer than the leaves and borne in the leaf axils. Fruit is an almost globular pod, 2 – 3 mm long, olive green and slightly wrinkled, carrying only one seed.Flowering late winter – early summer

Habitat:

Found along lake margins, riverbanks, and black box communities with grey heavy clay soils. Occurs in a wide range of habitats.

Region	Salinity Class	Waterlogging Class
Loddon Murray, Western, Gippsland	S0, S1, S2, S3	W0, W1, W2

Comments:

Coumarin in dairy grazed foliage gives a distinctive taint to milk.

Hexham Scent - plant
Photo: A J Brown

Hexham Scent - flowers
Photo: A J Brown

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