MELILOT i8i 



Melilot (\\rcIilotus officinalis, Lam.) 



In spite of its numerous pods this plant is not found in any ancient 

 deposits. The North Temperate Zone is its principal region, the plant 

 being- found in luirope, East and Western Asia, Thibet, and it has 

 been introduced into North America. In Great Britain it is not known 

 in Brecon, Radnor, Carmarthen; in N. Wales only in Carnarvon, Llint, 

 and Anglesea; in the Trent province generally; not in the Isle of 

 Man, Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, Ayr, but in Berwick and Haddington, 

 Edinburgh, Fife, W. and N. Perth, from which county it is generally 

 distributed southward. In Ireland it is \ery rare. 



Watson regarded the sweet-scented Melilot only as a denizen, in 

 which case we could not e.xpect to find ii in liriiish Glacial or 

 Preglacial beds. It grows in waste places, reaching a great height, 

 growing" generally in profusion, and once established it continues in 

 the same Iocalit\- for a long period. With it are associated W^orm- 

 seed, Lepidiiiui Draba. antl other weeds of cuIti\ation. 



The plant is of erect habit. The stem is much branched. The 

 leaves are trifoliate. The leaflets are blunt, coarsely toothed, egg- 

 shaped or inversely egg-shaped, linear to oblong. The stipules are 

 awl-like, very slender, entire. The leaves go to sleep at night, and 

 the leaflets assume a vertical position, facing north, and facing the 

 terminal leaflet, so that the upper surfaces face N.N.W. and N.N.E. 

 The terminal leaflet twists west or east, usually west. 



Darwin also found that if horizontal the leaves suffered from frost. 

 He says the terminal leaflet moves in another and more remarkable 

 manner, for whilst its blade is twisting and becoming vertical, the 

 whole leaflet bends to one side, and invariably to the side towards 

 which the upper .surface is directed, so that if this surface faces the 

 west the whole leaflet bends to the west, until it comes into contact 

 with the upper and vertical surface of the western lateral leaflet. 

 Thus the u[)per surface of the terminal and of one of the two lateral 

 leaflets is well protected. 



The flowers are yellow, in racemes, all turned one way. The 

 petals are nearly ecjual. The wings are keeled. The corolla is more 

 than twice as long as the calyx. The ultimate flower-stalks are short. 

 The pod is egg-shaped, flattened, acute, long-pointed, netted, hairy, 

 black when ripe, 1-2 seeded. 



Melilot grows often 4-5 ft. high, but usually 2 ft. The flowers are in 

 bloom from June to August. The plant is an annual reproducing Ijy seed. 



