Melilotus wolgicusPoir.

sweetclover

WFO wfo-0000185401 Accepted WFO 2026-06 3 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–c · 1 observation

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Melilotus wolgicus, photographed by Oleg Kosterin
fig. a Oleg Kosterin, CC BY 4.0 / 2008-06-28 / obs. 181911439
Melilotus wolgicus, photographed by Oleg Kosterin
fig. b Oleg Kosterin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 181911449
Melilotus wolgicus, photographed by Oleg Kosterin
fig. c Oleg Kosterin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 181911465

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 8 botanical countries

Regions where Melilotus wolgicus is native: Kazakhstan, Mongolia, West Siberia, Central European Russia, East European Russia, Krym, South European Russia, Ukraine KazakhstanMongoliaWest SiberiaCentral European RussiaEast European RussiaKrymSouth European RussiaUkraine
Native distribution of Melilotus wolgicus, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Central European Russia RUC EUROPE
East European Russia RUE
Krym KRY
South European Russia RUS
Ukraine UKR
Kazakhstan KAZ ASIA-TEMPERATE
Mongolia MON
West Siberia WSB

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 10 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Medicago ruthenica (Ser.) E.H.L.Krause
  • Melilotus integerrimus Steven ex Trautv.
  • Melilotus laxus Steven ex Trautv.
  • Melilotus micranthus Willd. ex Steven
  • Melilotus ruthenica (M.Bieb.) Ser.
  • Melilotus ruthenicus Ser.
  • Melilotus volgicus Poir.
  • Melilotus wolgica Poir.
  • Sertula ruthenica (Ser.) Kuntze
  • Trifolium melilotus-ruthenicum M.Bieb.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol MEWO3. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.