Plant · P-094

White Sweet Clover

Melilotus albus

White Sweet Clover is an annual, white-flowered nitrogen fixer bred to do well on heavy alkaline clay and prairie soils, sending down a taproot deep enough to break up compacted ground. Its spring flowers make it one of the biggest honey sources on the continent, and grazed or chopped fresh it is safe, nutritious forage - but never cut it for hay or silage: the same coumarin that makes it useful turns into a blood-thinning toxin once the cured or stored material molds. Left ungrazed past flowering, it seeds itself into a dense stand, so it earns its keep and needs managing in the same season.