Ribbed Melilot - Melilotus officinalis

Medium to tall hairless plant to 2.5 metres tall with spreading to erect stems. Flowers yellow, 4 to 7 mm, in slender lax racemes, the wings longer than the keel. Glabrous seeds.

Tall Melilot (Melilotus altissima)

The keel (lowest petal) is shorter than the wings (side petals) and the standard (top petal).  Wings and standard are about equal in length.   Fruits brown and glabrous when ripe

A photo of the plant in its habitat, plus a side on view of flowers, or fruits.

A weed of rough waste ground, but sometimes on cultivated land, and preferring heavier soils.

July to September.

Annual or perennial.

Widespread in England south of the Tyne, but rarer in the west.

Fairly frequent in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 107 of the 617 tetrads.