This plant is called Melilotus officinalis (Synonyms: M. alba, M. arvensis, M. leucantus, M. lutea, and Medicago officinalis). Melilotus is from the Greek word “meli”, meaning honey and “lotos”, meaning a leguminous plant. Common names include sweetclover, white sweetclover, and yellow sweetclover.

During our most recent bee inspection, we had some beautiful frames of pollen in many different colors – such as red, orange, yellow, light green, etc. In March, there usually isn’t much blooming yet, so I started looking around the property to see what we had in bloom and did some research.