Stats

Lifespan: Biennial
Size: Medium
Diet: Photosynthetic
Biome: Temperate grassland
Range: Eurasia
Movement: Sessile
Breeding: Seeds
Defense: Toxins
Status: Common

About

Yellow sweetclover is a tall biennial herb in the pea family that fills meadows and roadsides with slender spikes of tiny yellow flowers. Its leaves smell strongly of vanilla-like coumarin when crushed — the same compound that, when moldy hay forms dicoumarol from it, can cause fatal internal bleeding in livestock.

Life cycle

1.
seed
A dormant seed waits for water and warmth before germinating.
2.
sprout
A first shoot emerges with cotyledon leaves and a tap root reaching down.
3.
sapling
A young plant grows true leaves and a stem or trunk, putting on height each season.
4.
mature
Fully grown, flowering or fruiting at adult size.

Learn more

Taxonomy

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Genus: Melilotus
Species: Melilotus officinalis