Photographs: near Ballingeary, Co. Cork

Furrowed Melilot Melilotus sulcatus Family: Fabaceae Flowering time: July-September. Annual. Introduced. Small yellow flowers with the standard and keel more/less equal in length but the wings much shorter. The glabrous, ridged fruit are yellowish orange-brown when ripe. Tri-foliate leaves with toothed leaflets. A usually erect plant. Height to 40cm. A Mediterranean native sometimes recorded in the UK as a bird-seed alien but a very rare casual in Ireland. Identification confirmed by Paul Green, BSBI Similar: Tall Melilot, Melilotus altissima, Ribbed Melilot M. officinalis and Small Melilot M. indicus

Furrowed Melilot, Melilotus sulcatus