melilot
American Heritage Dictionary:
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mel·i·lot
(mĕl'ə-lŏt') 
n.
Any of several Old World plants of the genus Melilotus in the pea family, having compound leaves with three leaflets and narrow racemes of small white or yellow flowers. Also called sweet clover.
n.
Any of several Old World plants of the genus Melilotus in the pea family, having compound leaves with three leaflets and narrow racemes of small white or yellow flowers. Also called sweet clover.
[Middle English melilote, from Old French, from Latin melilōtos, from Greek : meli, honey + lōtos, lotus; see lotus.]
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Sweet clover, a wild plant (Melilotus officinalis) which commonly grows in fields and on waste ground, especially on sandy soil; used as forage. The dried leaves have a sweet hay-like aroma.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
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melilot
sweet clover or melilot (mĕl'əlŏt), Eurasian and North African leguminous herbs of the genus Melilotus of the family Leguminosae (pulse family). Sweet clovers, now widely naturalized in North America, are used as forage, cover, and soiling crops. Attractive to bees for their fragrant blossoms, they are also honey plants. Melilotus is a different genus from that of the true clovers. Sweet clover is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Rosales, family Leguminosae.
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Melilotus
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2010) |
- This article is about the genus of grassland plants. For the moshav, see Mlilot.
| Melilotus | |
|---|---|
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| Melilotus officinalis | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Rosids |
| Order: | Fabales |
| Family: | Fabaceae |
| Subfamily: | Faboideae |
| Tribe: | Trifolieae |
| Genus: | Melilotus L. |
| Species | |
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See text |
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| Synonyms | |
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Brachylobus Dulac (1867)[1] |
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Melilotus, known as Melilot or Sweet-clover, is a genus in the family Fabaceae. Members are known as common grassland plants and as weeds of cultivated ground. Originally from Europe and Asia, it is now found worldwide.
This legume is commonly named for its sweet smell, which is due to its high content of the perfume agent coumarin. This chemical is responsible for the sweet smell of hay and is bitter to the taste, probably produced by the plant to discourage ingestion by animals.[2] Coumarin, in turn, is converted by fungi (including Penicillium, Aspergillus, Fusarium, and Mucor[3]) into a poisonous anticoagulant, called dicoumarol, that may be found in moldly or spoiled sweet-clover. This compound was the historical cause of so-called sweet-clover disease, recognized in cattle since the 1920s.[4]
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Uses
Melilotus species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including case-bearers of the genus Coleophora that including C. frischella and C. trifolii.
Melilotus is often used as a green manure and turned into the soil to increase its nitrogen and organic matter content. It is especially valuable in heavy soils because of its deep rooting. However, it may fail if the soil is too acidic. It should be turned into the soil when 8 to 10 inches tall. Unscarified seed is best sown in spring when the ground is not too dry; scarified seed is better sown in late fall or even in the snow, so it will germinate before competing weeds the following spring.[5]
Others
Blue Melilot (Trigonella caerulea) is not a member of the genus, despite the name.
Species
The genus Melilotus currently has nineteen recognized species:[6]
- Melilotus albus Medik.
- Melilotus altissimus Thuill.
- Melilotus dentatus (Waldst. & Kit.) Pers.
- Melilotus elegans Salzm. ex Ser.
- Melilotus hirsutus Lipsky
- Melilotus indicus (L.) All.
- Melilotus infestus Guss.
- Melilotus italicus (L.) Lam.
- Melilotus macrocarpus Coss. & Durieu
- Melilotus officinalis (L.) Lam.
- Melilotus polonicus (L.) Desr.
- Melilotus segetalis (Brot.) Ser.
- Melilotus siculus (Turra) B. D. Jacks.
- Melilotus speciosus Durieu
- Melilotus spicatus (Sm.) Breistr.
- Melilotus suaveolens Ledeb.
- Melilotus sulcatus Desf.
- Melilotus tauricus (M. Bieb.) Ser.
- Melilotus wolgicus Poir.
References
- ^ a b c d e Woodgate, Katherine; Maxted, Nigel; Bennett, Sarita Jane (1996). "Genetic resources of Mediterranean pasture and forage legumes". In Bennett, Sarita Jane; Cocks, Philip Stanley. Genetic resources of Mediterranean pasture and forage legumes. Current Plant Science and Biotechnology in Agriculture. 33. Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers. p. 203. ISBN 0-7923-5522-9.
- ^ "Phytochemicals.info:Coumarin"]. http://www.phytochemicals.info/phytochemicals/coumarin.php. Retrieved 2011-11-26.
- ^ Edwards WC, Burrows GE, Tyr RJ: 1984, Toxic plants of Oklahoma:clovers. Okla Vet Med Assoc 36:30-32.
- ^ Behzad Yamini, Robert H. Poppenga, W. Emmett Braselton, Jr., and Lawrence J. Judge (1995). "Dicoumarol (moldy sweet clover) toxicosis in a group of Holstein calves". J Vet Diagn Invest 7:420-422. http://vdi.sagepub.com/content/7/3/420.full.pdf.
- ^ Five Acres and Independence by M.G. Kains. 1973.
- ^ "Species Nomenclature in GRIN". http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/splist.pl?7430. Retrieved 2010-08-04.
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American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. Copyright © 1995, 2003, 2005 by A. E. Bender and D. A. Bender. All rights reserved.
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Columbia Encyclopedia
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.
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