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.
Similar to Tall Melilot. The main difference is that Tall Melilot has black, hairy seed pods, whereas the seed pods of Ribbed Melilot are olive-green and hairless. Ribbed Melilot also has the flower wings longer than the keel but in Tall Melilot they are of equal length.
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.
Craig Mabbettnear Broughton Astley04 November 2015Keel shorter than wing petals
David NichollsRatby Disused Railway09 July 2011
Craig Mabbettnear Broughton Astley04 November 2015glabrous seeds
Graham CalowJubilee Walk Leire08 July 2012
Graham CalowWitherley01 August 2015
Graham CalowJubilee Walk Leire08 July 2012leaves
Leicestershire & Rutland Map
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David NichollsUllesthorpe Stewardship Farm02 September 2011
Graham CalowWitherley01 August 2015
David NichollsRatby Disused Railway09 July 2011
David NichollsBagworth Heath Woods17 September 2011
David NichollsCossington11 October 2011
Graham CalowJubilee Walk Leire08 July 2012
David NichollsAshby Canal, Shackerstone15 September 2012
Alan SemperStonesby Quarry24 July 2013
AJ CannKetton Quarry21 June 2015
