Leaves
pinnately 3-foliolate, veins of leaflets usually extended into teeth on margin; stipules adnate to petiole; leaflets toothed
Flowers
yellow or white, small in slender or abbreviated, axillary racemes; bracts minute or 0
Calyx
with campanulate tube; lobes variable
Petals
: vexillum sessile, glabrous; wings oblong, eared at base, clawed; keel ± planoconvex, obtuse, clawed
Stamens
diadelphous, with vexillary stamen free or partly connate with rest; anthers uniform
Ovary
sessile or subsessile, 2-few-ovuled; style straight or incurved, with terminal stigma
Pod
small, subglobose or ovoid, indehiscent or tardily 2-valved, longer than calyx
Seeds
solitary or few, often ± kidney-shaped
x = 8, 9 (high polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
*Melilotus
Mill.
Miller: [876] (1754)
Adanson: 322 (1763)
Harvey: 161 (1862)
Henderson & Anderson: 182 (1966)
Gillett: 1039 (1971)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species ± 20, temperate and subtropical regions of Europe, Asia and North Africa
Southern Africa
: Species 3, have become naturalised and are widespread near cultivated lands
References:
ADANSON, M. 1763.
Familles des plantes
2. Vincent, Paris
GILLETT, J.B. 1971.
Flora of tropical East Africa
.
Leguminosae
(part 4).
Papilionoideae
(continued)
HARVEY, W.H. 1862.
Leguminosae
.
Flora capensis
2
HENDERSON, M. & ANDERSON, J.G. 1966.
Caesalpinia decapetala
(Roth) Alston. Common weeds in South Africa.
Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa
37
MILLER, P. 1754.
The gardener's dictionary
, abridged edn 4. Rivington, London
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