Index / Search / Melilotus officinalis
§1 Plant — species · Fabaceae
Melilotus officinalis (L.) Lam.
vernacular sweetclover
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Forb/herb
- Duration
- Annual, Biennial, Perennial
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Fabaceae Lindl.
- Genus
- Melilotus
§2a
Native status, by region
- AK Alaska Introduced
- CAN Canada Introduced
- GL Greenland Introduced
- HI Hawaii Introduced
- L48 Lower 48 States Introduced
- PB Pacific Basin (except Hawaii) Introduced
- PR Puerto Rico Introduced
- SPM St. Pierre & Miquelon Introduced
§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- High
- Shade
- High
- Moisture use
- Medium
- Fire
- High
- Salinity
- High
- Anaerobic
- Low
- CaCO₃
- High
- Hedging
- None
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- -38 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 110 min.
- Precipitation
- 17–60 in/yr
- pH range
- 6.5–8
- Root depth
- 16 in min.
- Fertility need
- High
- Soil texture
- medium, fine
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Single Crown
- Growth rate
- Rapid
- Lifespan
- Short
- Mature height
- 5 ft
- Foliage texture
- Coarse
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Porous
- Porosity (winter)
- Porous
- Flower colour
- White
- Fruit colour
- Yellow
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- Medium
- Toxicity
- Moderate
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Summer
- Seed abundance
- High
- Seed begins
- Summer
- Seed ends
- Fall
- Spread rate
- Rapid
- Stratify
- No
- Seeds / lb
- 258,560
- Propagation
- seed
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- Routinely Available
- Nursery stock
- No
- Browse palatability
- Low
- Graze palatability
- Medium
- Palatable, human
- No
- Protein potential
- High
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Montana distribution
Recorded in 48 of 56 Montana counties.
Introduced · 48 counties
- Beaverhead 30001
- Big Horn 30003
- Blaine 30005
- Broadwater 30007
- Carter 30011
- Cascade 30013
- Chouteau 30015
- Custer 30017
- Daniels 30019
- Dawson 30021
- Deer Lodge 30023
- Fergus 30027
- Flathead 30029
- Gallatin 30031
- Glacier 30035
- Golden Valley 30037
- Hill 30041
- Jefferson 30043
- Judith Basin 30045
- Lake 30047
- Lewis and Clark 30049
- Liberty 30051
- Lincoln 30053
- Madison 30057
- McCone 30055
- Meagher 30059
- Mineral 30061
- Missoula 30063
- Musselshell 30065
- Park 30067
- Petroleum 30069
- Phillips 30071
- Pondera 30073
- Powder River 30075
- Powell 30077
- Prairie 30079
- Ravalli 30081
- Richland 30083
- Sanders 30089
- Sheridan 30091
- Silver Bow 30093
- Stillwater 30095
- Sweet Grass 30097
- Teton 30099
- Toole 30101
- Valley 30105
- Wibaux 30109
- Yellowstone 30111
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/MEOF ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/8193111 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-25
fetched 2026-05-25T16:28:53Z