DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME COMMON WEEDS 



189 



away from point of attachment, rattling in the pod, hence 

 the name of the plant. Common in sandy soil, and found 

 in large numbers on the sand bars of the Missouri River, 

 where it may be collected by the wagon load. This plant, 

 in Iowa, is one of the chief causes of "loco disease," and 

 is generally regarded as poisonous. 



White Sweet Clover (Melilotus alba, 

 Desv.). An erect annual or biennial, 

 growing from three to four feet high ; 

 leaves compound, small white flowers, 

 growing on rather slender flower 

 stalks ; seeds small, yellowish brown in 

 color and with a peculiar cumarin-like 

 odor, which also characterizes the 

 leaves and stem. An introduced plant 

 found throughout the northern Missis- 

 sippi valley, and especially abundant 

 along roadsides, in meadows, in fields 

 of corn and wheat, and along the rail- 

 ways ; spreads by means of seeds and 

 is an annual, biennial or short-lived 

 perennial. Sometimes used as a forage 

 and honey plant. It has a high per- 

 centage of protein. When the plant 

 is abundant in grain fields, flour ground 

 from this grain has an unpleasant odor. 

 Hay containing it is disagreeable to stock, cattle refusing 

 to eat it at first. There are indications also that the plant 

 is somewhat poisonous. The yellow-flowered sweet clover 

 (M. officinalis) is troublesome and common in the West. 

 Low Hop-clover (Trifolium procumbens, L.). An an- 

 nual with slender and procumbent, or ascending, pubes- 

 cent stems, three to six inches high; leaflets 

 wedge-obovate, notched; stipules ovate, short; flow- 

 ers yellow, short pedicels reflexed with age. East- 

 ward in the eastern states, and west of the Rock} 



Fig. 120. Yellow 

 clover (Meli- 



