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Electronic Flora of South Australia species Fact Sheet

Family: Fabaceae
Melilotus indica

Citation: All., Fl. Ped. 1:308 (1785).

Synonymy: -Trifolium Melilotus indica L., Sp. Pl. 765 (1753); M. parviflora Desf., Fl. Atlant. 2:192 (1799).

Common name: King Island melilot, Hexham scent, sweet melilot.

Description:
Erect ascending annual, 5-50 cm high, stem pubescent; leaflets lanceolate-oblong, 1.2-2.5 x 7-10 mm, glabrous or subglabrous, on 15-40 mm long petioles; stipules subentire, basally slightly dentate.

Flowers to 3 mm long, in rather dense 10-60-flowered racemes on peduncles to 30 mm long and usually longer than the corresponding petiole and lengthening considerably in fruit; ovary 2-ovulate; petals pale-yellow; wings and keel equal, shorter than the standard.

Pod subglobose, 2-3 mm long, obtuse, glabrous, reticulate-wrinkled, with transverse S-shaped veins, whitish-grey when young, olive-green when ripe; seed 1, ovate, c. 2 mm long, brown, papillose.

image of FSA2_Melilotus_ind.jpg
Image source: fig. 352B in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Cunningham et al. (1982) Plants of western New South Wales, p. 406.

Distribution:    W.Aust.; N.T.; ?Qld; N.S.W.; Vic.; Tas.   native to the southern Mediterranean to southern Asia, widely naturalised in America.

Conservation status: naturalised

Flowering time: May — Jan., mainly Sept. — Oct.


SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available


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