Melilotus indica

Yellow annual sweet clover, sour clover, Indian sweet clover

Glabrous sweet-smelling erect herb up to 1 m high with yellow flowers and small pods. If poorly harvested or ensiled it produces a coumarin-like substance that interacts with the coagulation of blood in the animals eating it; deaths from internal bleeding have been reported. It should be cut when the pods are just being formed; if cut earlier, the risk of bloat is greater. Palatable but low yielding as it gives only one cutting. Tolerates alkaline soils and can thus be used to reclaim saline areas.

As % of dry matter

DM

CP

CF

Ash

EE

NFE

Ca

P

Ref

Fresh aerial part,

India

21.6

15.3

29.4

13.1

1.7

40.5

282

Pods, India

25.3

14.9

8.5

1.9

49.4

1.34

0.35

436

Seeds, Chile

95.3

29.0

16.9

4.5

3.2

46.4

315

Digestibility (%)

Animal

CP

CF

EE

NFE

ME

Ref

Aerial part

Cattle

82.0

58.0

43.0

76.0

2.33

282