Flowers and leaves. Photo: Don Wood, south coast, NSW

Pods and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photo: Murray Fagg, Lake George near Bungendore, NSW

Plant. Australian Plant Image Index, photo: Murray Fagg, Canberra, ACT

Common Name

Hexham Scent, King Island Melilot, Sweet Melilot

Family

Fabaceae

Notes

Introduced annual forb to 1m tall.  Leaves alternating up the stems, composed of 3 flat leaflets, each 0.5-3cm long, 2-13mm wide, flat, hairless or slightly hairy, margins toothed, tips pointed.  Flowers fragrant, with a vanilla-like unpleasant scent, tiny (less than 3mm across), yellow.  Flowers pea-shaped, with five petals, two almost joined together, in cylindrical racemes, the stalks arising from the bases of the leaves. 

Description and photo (pages 406) (as  Melilotus indica) in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales.

PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Melilotus~indicus