With dense stands of leafy, bushy stems reaching 5 feet tall, this is one of the most abundant roadside plants in the Southwest. Spike-like clusters of small, yellow flowers cover the branch tips. Note the slender, branching stems are covered with leaves with 3 elliptic leaflets. Like all legumes, its roots enrich the soil with nitrogen.

FLOWER: Spring, summer. Crowded elongated clusters have 30–70 small, yellow flowers, each 1/4–3/4 inch long (6–8 mm); flowers droop, are pea-like with an upright banner petal, two side wings, and a keel petal. Fruit is a small, flat pod with 1–2 seeds.

LEAVES: Alternate. Blade has a short stalk (petiole) with 3 palmate, elliptic leaflets, each 1/2–1 inch long (12–25 mm); margins smooth to slightly toothed.

HABITAT: Various soils in disturbed areas, roadsides, pastures, meadows, riparian areas, floodplains; desert scrub and grasslands, prairies, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa woodlands.

ELEVATION: All elevations to 8,500 feet.

RANGE: Naturalized throughout most of North America to Alaska.

SIMILAR SPECIES: White Sweet Clover, M. albus (alba), also introduced and naturalized, often grows with this species and is included with M. officinalis by some authorities.

NM COUNTIES: Nearly statewide (not reported in Hidalgo County) in low- to mid-elevation habitats.

NOTES: CuLtivated extensively for revegetation, cropland and cattle range improvement, and honey production from the early 1700s through the 1990s, this adaptable plant easily became established in the wild throughout North America. It’s most common in disturbed areas along roadsides, overgrazed fields, and riparian areas. Studies show that dense stands adversely impact the numbers and diversity of native species, and many states list it as “invasive.” On the positive, sweet clover is considered high-quality, palatable forage for large and small wildlife, and provides seeds and cover for birds. It’s a nectar plant for many pollinators, especially bees, and a larval host for Eastern-Tailed Blue, Silvery Blue, Reakirt's Blue, Western Sulphur, and Orange Sulphur butterflies.