The MGS Forum
Plant identification => Plant identification => Topic started by: Hilary on April 27, 2019, 05:01:59 PM
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Yellow wild flower
I am beginning to think I will never be able to identify a plant. I either forget to look at the bark of a trees, or should have seen if there were any seed pods around or the length of various parts .
if anyone can tell me if it is a ------- or------ I would be very grateful .
It is either that or go by the name of yellow wild flower.
It was growing by the roadside in the Mani last week
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Melilotus italicus, methinks.
(M. indicus has more elongate inflorescence)
Both species, and other yellow clovers, have a range of habits from sprawling to erect.
But I don't have an up-to-date key for M. in Cyprus (the one in Meikle, 1977 is out-of-date), so I am not 100% convinced.
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Mike, Yiannis Christofides mentions 6 varieties of Melilotus in his book, including both italicus and indicus, unfortunately without photos of either. I still have the copy you ordered and need to get it to you. Once the Greek Easter period is over I'll get up your way and hand it over!
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John,
See
http://www.flora-of-cyprus.eu/cdm_dataportal/taxon/ae566d80-0d7e-4ca2-9168-5948c205a1f1
and from thereabouts you can navigate to other species of M.
However, I now think the leaves are wrong. Perhaps M. officinalis is more likely.
Book - I have been expecting to make a trip to Limassol (hence you), but the company isn't ready for me. yet. That will probably happen in the next few weeks. Meanwhile if you're over this way, yes, please give me a call. Sorry you've had this issue outstanding.
//Mike
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Many thanks Mike and John J
I will go with the Melilotus officinalis although I don't see any sign of the
'flowers small and many in long elongated spikes'
mentioned in one of the books I have
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Umm, yes, that may be an issue, Hilary, though a degree of variability in several of the species complicates matters.
Tricky without a key, as I said.
Here's a list of Melilotus in Greece
http://portal.cybertaxonomy.org/flora-greece/cdm_dataportal/taxon/e231d3ec-d37f-478d-81cd-151b35fda2ed.
You can tick a box to turn thumbnails on, but you don't get many of those or full images.
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Mike and Hilary, i know how much you both like to get to the bottom of things, so thought you might be interested in these three pages from Flora Europaea vol 2, which do include a key to Melilotus - sorry the pages are a bit murky!
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Thank you Alasdair