Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Melilotus indicus

Common name

Hexham scent, King Island melilot, Hexham scented melilot, Sweet melilot

Family

Fabaceae

Where found

Woodland, grassy areas, disturbed sites, and along streams. Mainly coastal including the Sydney area away from the coast. Canberra and nearby. Sporadic elsewhere.

Notes

Introduced annual herb to 1 m tall, fragrant. Stems hairless to sparsely hairy. Leaves alternating up the stems, compound, with 3 leaflets, each 0.5-3 cm long, 2-15 mm wide, hairless or slightly hairy, margins toothed, tips blunt or notched, stipules more or less lance head shaped, mostly 5–10 mm long, dilated and toothed towards the base. Flowers have an unpleasant scent like vanilla. Flowers yellow, 2-3 mm long, pea shaped, with 5 petals, 2 joined together to form the keel,, in cylindrical clusters of 10-60 flowers. Flowers mainly Spring.

PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Melilotus~indicus (accessed 24 January, 2021)