Neapolitan melilot

Melilotus neapolitanus, the Neapolitan melilot, is an annual or biennial herb in the Fabaceae native to the Mediterranean basin and Western Asia, naturalized sporadically in disturbed ground elsewhere. Plants are erect, slender, and well branched, reaching 20 to 60 cm tall, with glabrous to sparsely pubescent stems. The leaves are alternate and trifoliolate, the leaflets obovate to oblong-cuneate, 8 to 20 mm long, finely serrate on the upper half, with small lanceolate stipules adnate to the petiole. Slender axillary racemes 2 to 5 cm long bear 10 to 30 small papilionaceous flowers, each 2 to 3.5 mm long with a pale yellow corolla. The fruit is a small, ovoid, reticulately ridged indehiscent pod 2 to 3 mm long containing a single seed. Like other melilots the foliage contains coumarin and emits a sweet, hay-like fragrance when dried or bruised.