Tinkturenpresse

Trigonella caerulea (L.) Ser. - syn. Melilotus caeruleus (L.) Desr.; Trifolium caeruleum L. - Fabaceae
blue fenugreek, sweet trefoil, Schabzigerklee, (Südtiroler) Brotklee, Blauer Steinklee

Aromatic annual herb, 30-60cm tall, cultivated in the mountains of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe; leaves pinnately 3-foliolate, leaflets ovate to broadly elliptic, sparsely pubescent on midrib abax­ially, glabrous adaxially, margin serrate; racemes capitate or ovoid, 10-25-flowered, corolla blue, 5-6mm.
„Trigonella caerulea is apparently nowhere indigenous and was probably derived from T. procumbens (Besser) Reichenbach (Ivimey-Cook in Tutin et al., Fl. Eur. 2: 152. 1968).“
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=242352930

The dried aerial parts smell like fenugreek (or sotolon) and are widely used in Georgian, Swiss and Austrian cuisine.

„Together with fennel, cumin and coriander, the South Tyrolean bread clover is one of the popular bread spices that give traditional South Tyrolean bread (Schüttelbrot, Vinschger Paarl, Pusterer Breatln) their distinctive, flavored taste.“
http://www.brotklee.it/

„Blue fenugreek is widely used in Georgian cuisine, where it is known as utskho suneli. It is one of the ingredients of the Georgian spice mix khmeli suneli. Both the seeds, the pods and the leaves are used. The smell and taste are similar to ordinary fenugreek, but milder. In Switzerland it is used for flavouring the traditional schabziger cheese.“ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigonella_caerulea

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, vol.49 t.2283 (1822) [J.Curtis]
http://plantgenera.org/species.php?id_species=1032612

South Tyrolean garden plants