Field Guide: Wildflowers

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White Sweet Clover
You found White Sweet clover (Melilotus alba).
The flowers grow in long spikes of white flowers (8). The flowers bloom in the spring, summer and fall. The fruit is a one-seeded pod with 14,000 to 350,000 seeds per plant released a year. The seeds are distributed by wind, gravity and water. There are compound leaves arranged in an alternate pattern (10). There are 3 narrow, toothed leaflets. It is mainly biennial. The plant is between 1 to 10 inches high. It is shade intolerant and is found most commonly along roadsides. It is native to Europe and Asia, but is found throughout the United States and Canada.