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- Sweet clover is most easy to spot growing along the bund on the north verge of Cowbar Lane although it may have been growing unnoticed in the grassland before 2022.
- It grows mainly on waste ground and rubbish tips. This could be why the dry, stony soil of the bund suited it this year.
- It is also called sour clover, yellow blossom, Indian sweet-clover, Hexham scent and small-flowered melilot.
- The yellow flowers are a source of nectar for bees but the plant is poisonous to some mammals.
- In Pakistan, Melilotus indicus is called sinji, which is used as a vegetable.
- The dried leaves can be toxic, though the fresh leaves are quite safe. This is due to the presence of coumarin, the substance that gives some dried plants the smell of new mown hay.
- The leaves repel insects and can be put in beds as an anti-bedbug measure.
- Sweet clover has many medicinal uses. It has antioxidant properties. The seeds can be made into a gruel and used n the treatment of bowel complaints.
- The plant can be made into a plaster and applied to swellings. The plant also contains dicumarol which is a broad-spectrum bactericide so a solution can be used as a disinfectant to bathe infections.
- Its deep tap root fixes nitrogen in the soil.
- There are four Melilotus species identified as growing wild, including a white flowered version. Tall Melilot, which grows around Scalby and Robin Hood’s Bay, has similar flowers but much more spiky leaves and stems up to 1m.
