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Invasive Plants
- Perennial Sow Thistle
- Creeping Thistle
- Oxeye Daisy
- Common Tansy
- Spotted Knapweed
- Narrowleaf Hawksbeard
- Scentless Chamomile
- Leafy Spurge
- Foxtail Barley
- Altai Wild Rye
- Crested Wheat Grass
- Smooth Brome
- Quackgrass
- Reed Canary Grass
- Bird Vetch
- Lucerne
- Sweetclover
- Greater Butter-and-Eggs
- Dalmatica Toadflas
Sweetclover
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White Sweetclover |
Yellow Sweetclover |
Common name: Sweetclover
Scientific name: Melilotus alba (white) or Melilotus officinalis (yellow)
Family: Fabaceae
Description
Sweetclover is an annual or occasionally biennial plant in the pea family that can grow 2 m tall but is usually less than 1 m. It rapidly colonizes gravelly well-drained soils such as roadsides, waste areas and river banks and bars. A single plant can produce 300,000 seeds and the seeds remain viable in the soil or under water for many years (80% survival after 30 years). This is likely Yukon's most invasive and problematic species.
Range in Yukon
White sweetclover is widespread throughout southern Yukon. It is known along much of the Alaska, North Klondike, Robert Campbell, Top-of-the-World highways and 30 km up the Dempster Highway. It has proved to be highly invasive along the Labiche River in southeast Yukon. The only sites known on the Yukon River in Yukon are Whitehorse, Carmacks and Dawson; although it is a serious problem on Alaskan waterways including tributaries of the Yukon River.
Similar Species
Yellow sweetclover (Melilotus officinalis), the yellow coloured relative, is widespread throughout southern Yukon, though not as abundant as its cousin.
Ecological Impact
White sweetclover readily invades open areas and forest clearings as well as on river banks. It can form large monospecific stands, overgrow and shade native species. It will degrade natural grasslands.
Control
Plants should be pulled or cut before or when flowering. First-year plants may re-grow and can be cut again. Pulling or cutting will have to be repeated over a number of years to deplete the seed bank.
Contact Environment Yukon Government of Yukon Box 2703 (V-5N) Bruce Bennett, Wildlife Viewing Biologist Phone: 867-667-5331 Email: bruce.bennett@gov.yk.ca |