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Melilotus albus; photograph (c) Luke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Luke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-26

Melilotus albus Medik.

White melilot; White sweet-clover; Honey clover; Bokhara-clover

Fabaceae · Austria, Czechoslovakia +73

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Melilotus albus, photograph (c) Евгений Маринкин, some rights reserved (CC BY)Melilotus albus, photograph (c) Евгений Маринкин, some rights reserved (CC BY)Melilotus albus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMelilotus albus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMelilotus albus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMelilotus albus, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 65 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-8.2°C
Record low -19.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
23°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
847mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
7–36DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Melilotus albus, known as honey clover, white melilot (UK), Bokhara clover (Australia), white sweetclover (US), and sweet clover, is a nitrogen-fixing legume in the family Fabaceae. Melilotus albus is considered a valuable honey plant and source of nectar and is often grown for forage. Its characteristic sweet odor, intensified by drying, is derived from coumarin.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Melilotus albus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (606 mm of 855 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 16.0 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

Rain

855 mm in the median year at the habitat, 606 mm of it June to January. Wettest month December at 81 mm, driest month April at 51 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 596 mm to 1,467 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 847 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 855 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 36 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 4, the highest 90th-percentile month 49).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -8.2 °C, the absolute minimum -19.8 °C, 2,570 frost nights in 44 years, 58.4 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 0.7 °C in January and February (across the grid cells of the range -4.7 °C to 9.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 23.3 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -8.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -34 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Melilotus albus through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 23 °C; coldest months January and February, mean nightly low 0.7 °C; 855 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost29.7° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-19.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 7–36RH 59–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 79 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C6 / 2–177 / 4–1710 / 8–2014 / 12–2418 / 16–2721 / 19–3023 / 21–3123 / 21–3120 / 18–3115 / 14–2810 / 7–236 / 3–19
Night °C1 / -5–101 / -4–103 / 0–115 / 3–149 / 8–1712 / 11–2015 / 13–2214 / 13–2312 / 10–228 / 6–204 / 1–152 / -3–12
Rain mm76 / 33–15762 / 36–11969 / 42–10951 / 19–10767 / 5–13274 / 1–12574 / 1–16474 / 1–15770 / 2–11579 / 28–11778 / 46–12781 / 45–138
DLI9 / 5–1915 / 10–2523 / 17–3330 / 27–4135 / 32–4736 / 33–4935 / 32–4831 / 28–4524 / 19–3816 / 12–2910 / 6–227 / 4–18
RH %63 / 57–6861 / 57–6560 / 56–6359 / 54–6159 / 55–6260 / 55–6260 / 55–6461 / 56–6462 / 58–6463 / 58–6564 / 56–6864 / 57–69

Records on both sides of the equator: the 23 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 79 cells that remain: the 79 at least 10° north.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 79 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (93 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 779:3699 (51.025, 4.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -19.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -8.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 79 distinct grid cells holding 93 of the 118 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the northern side of the equator (79 cells poleward of 10° north, 23 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 779:3699 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 51.00_5.000, lapse-corrected -34 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 20 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAustria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, France, Portugal, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Northern Provinces, Altay, Krasnoyarsk, West Siberia, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Turkey, Gulf States, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China South-Central, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, China Southeast, Tibet, Xinjiang, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Myanmar · introduced: Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, North European Russia, Morocco, Canary Is., Madeira, Angola, Mauritius, Réunion, Buryatiya, Chita, Irkutsk, Tuva, Yakutskiya, Amur, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Magadan, Primorye, Sakhalin, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, New Caledonia, Hawaii, Alaska, Greenland, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Labrador, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Chile North, Chile South, Paraguay, Uruguay · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker51.007, 4.96 · in the densest population, 50 records (41% of those in range)
Doubtfully present inTunisia · recorded by WCVP as doubtfully present: not part of the range records are tested against
Kew's description“annual or biennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 121 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 93 of them in the land cells it reads, of 118 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 18 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 453 km away. 690 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 3 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 121 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Melilotus albus, photograph 1did not loadMelilotus albus, photograph 2did not loadMelilotus albus, photograph 3did not loadMelilotus albus, photograph 4did not loadMelilotus albus, photograph 5did not loadMelilotus albus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Евгений Маринкин, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (4).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Digitaria ischaemum Digitaria ischaemum Smooth finger grass Photo: CC0, author not statedSilene flos-cuculi Silene flos-cuculi Ragged robin Photo: CC BY, Роман ШестеровLathyrus latifolius Lathyrus latifolius Perennial pea Photo: CC BY, Gavin SlaterLunaria annua Lunaria annua Honesty Photo: CC0, author not statedFritillaria meleagris Fritillaria meleagris Fritillary Photo: CC BY, Юрий ЩукинVerbena officinalis Verbena officinalis Vervain Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Melilotus 6 in the reference

Melilotus altissimus Melilotus altissimus Tall melilot Photo: CC BY, guywallbanksMelilotus dentatus Melilotus dentatus Small-flowered melilot Photo: CC0, author not statedMelilotus indicus Melilotus indicus Small melilot Photo: CC BY, Arnim LittekMelilotus italicus Melilotus italicus Italian Melilot Photo: CC0, author not statedMelilotus neapolitanus Melilotus neapolitanus European sweetclover Photo: CC BY, Flora_DUMOMelilotus officinalis Melilotus officinalis Ribbed melilot Photo: CC0, author not stated

Names & registers

Also known as Medicago alba; Melilotus albus f. albus; Melilotus albus f. prolifer; Melilotus albus var. annua; Melilotus albus var. annuus and 24 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
Medik.
Native to
Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany +72
Wild records
121 in range · 18 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF occurrence search API; 15 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (11 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 4 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 51.00_5.000, lapse-corrected -34 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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