I just received the following from Ron and Rincon-Vitova:
 
Hello Linda,

After further checking it seems that I was a little mistaken, the active agents in Melilotus indica are coumarin and dicoumarol. Coumadin is a brand name for warfarin, a chemically modified coumarin, that is an anticoagulant..

There are reports that eating large quantities of fresh or dried herb can be harmful to livestock.

happiness,

Ron
 
In a message dated 2/15/2009 11:14:14 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, loren@sborganics.com writes:
You can find this plant growing all over the place.  picture  I am sure you could collect your own seed if you wanted.
It has a single stem and it reaches about 2 ft high.  I think it just deters gophers from eating itself, not other plants, kind of like gopher spurge.  If you did a 3 ft wide strip around your garden it might keep gophers out.  But the unknown good benefit of that would be lots of nitrogen rich biomass!

Loren Luyendyk
(805) 452-8249
www.sborganics.com
www.surferswithoutborders.org




To: sbogc@yahoogroups.com; sbperm2006@googlegroups.com; sbfoodfuture@googlegroups.com; Scpg@arashi.com
CC: crfgvsb@gmail.com
From: LBUZZELL@aol.com
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:36:07 -0500
Subject: -SBOrgGdn- Gopher Stopper Clover -- a nitrogen fixer that deters gophers!

Last night at the meeting of the Santa Barbara Rose Society, we had a speaker from Rincon-Vitova who shared a lot of info on beneficial insects and other organic methods.
 
One I thought people might be especially interested in is Gopher Stopper Clover (Melilotus indica or sourclover) which can be ordered from Rincon-Vitova.  It's a winter-annual legume in Calif and flowers April - October.  Contains coumarin, which is toxic to rodents (and livestock, if you happen to have any -- so care is required). 
 
It's definitely what permaculturists call a "stacking" plant - multiple functions.  It has been used as a green manure and cover crop in citrus and other orchards.  It improve heavy soils because of its deep roots and increases the water-holding capacity of all soils.
 
Rincon-Vitova is at www.rinconvitova.com
 
Linda

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