Also called ◼︎ 🍀︎ white-flowered sweet clover, sweet clover, honey clover, tree clover, Bokhara clover and ◼︎ white melilot.

Some sources below treat this plant as a population of ◼︎ 🍀︎ white sweet clover  Melilotus officinalis alba within sister-species ◼︎ 🍀︎ yellow sweet clover  Melilotus officinalis.

Regardless, both are part of 🍀︎ sweet clover  genus Melilotus in 🥜︎ legume / bean / pea  family Fabaceae in order Fabales.

Native to Eurasia.   Invasive > 🌐︎ global Invasive > 🇨🇦 🇺🇸 Canada+USA Invasive > report it! Invasive > Michigan  Adobe Acrobat Reader file (page 54)

Uses by native peoples
(Ethnobotany database)

Like most legumes, this plant cooperates with a bacterium that fixes atmospheric nitrogen into a form usable by plants and animals.

That allows these plants to:

  • outcompete non-nitrogen-fixing plants in poorer soils, and/or
  • have seeds and foliage with more protein.

This makes their seeds and foliage more nutritious to plant-eaters.  And growing these plants may improve the quality of worn-out farmland and disturbed soils.

Learn more about ◼︎ 🍀︎ white sweet clover Melilotus alba

Management and Control (Wisconsin)  Adobe Acrobat Reader file Best Control Practices BCP (Ontario)  Adobe Acrobat Reader file and its Technical Bulletin  Adobe Acrobat Reader file

🔍︎ 🔍︎ images Discover Life Encyclopedia of Life (Minnesota) Wildflower Garden Minnesota Wildflowers USDA PLANTS db USFS Wikipedia