Hexham Scent
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| Scientific Name: | Melilotus indicus | |
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. | |
| 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 |
© The State of Victoria, 1996 - 2009.
This document was last reviewed on 05/08/2009