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Melilotus indica L.Fabaceae (Pea Family)EurasiaAnnual Yellow Sweet-CloverYellow Sweet-CloverSourclover |
March Photo
Plant Characteristics:
Annual, stems erect, 2-8 dm. high, glabrous or +/- appressed-pubescent;
lvs. odd 1-pinnate; petioles commonly 0.5-2 cm. long; stipules linear-subulate,
4-6 mm. long; lfts. cuneate-oblanceolate to obovate, 1-3 cm. long, obtuse, or
truncate, denticulate; racemes 2-10 cm. long, including the peduncles; calyx
1-1.5 mm.; corolla yellow, 2.5-3 mm.; pods ovoid, reticulate, glabrous, 1.5-2
mm. long.
Habitat:
Common in waste places or at low elevs., most of Calif., below 1500 m.
April-Oct.
Name:
Greek, meli, honey, and lotos, some leguminous plant. (Munz,
Flora So. Calif. 464).
Greek, Indikos, of India. (Jaeger
127). Called Sour Clover in
the Audubon Field Guide. The common
name, Sweet-Clover, probably refers to the smell of the plant, rather than the
taste. (my comment)
General:
Common in the study area. Photographed
on the North Star Flats. (my
comments). The
bitter taste of the plant suggests medicinal value but modern day analysis does
not support this. The plant
contains coumarin, the same sweet smelling substance that is in vanilla. (ref.
not recorded). A
common cover crop in California, particularly in the southern part.
(Robbins et al. 265).
Care should be taken with any long-term use of the tea. Coumarin can combine in many inappropriate ways with
prescription drugs, resulting in peculiar and unpredictable compounds.
One of the basic anticoagulant drugs used in present medicine,
bishydroxycoumarin (Dicumarol), was discovered quite by accident when a rash of
fatal internal bleeding among cattle was found to have been due to eating rotten
Sweet Clover that had been bundled for fodder before it was dry.
The fermentation within the bales of wet plants had turned the coumarin
into bishydroxycoumarin. The dried
leaves and flowers can be used as pillow stuffers.
The leaves have been used in the manufacture of cheese such as Gruyere
and Schabzieger, and also make a pleasant adjunct to pipe tobacco.
(Moore, Medicinal Plants of
the Mountain West 152).
About 20 species of Eurasia and Africa.
(Munz, Flora So. Calif. 464).
Text Ref:
Abrams, Vol. II 521; Hickman, Ed. 638; Munz, Calif.
Flora 832; Munz, Flora So.
Calif. 464.
Photo Ref:
Feb 2 83 # 17,18.
Identity: by R. De Ruff.
Computer Ref: Plant Data 82.
No plant specimen.
Last edit 1/19/03.
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March Photo