Medicago minima(L.) L. Bur Medick

Medicago minima(L.) L. - Bur Medick

Scientific Description:

Annual, (5−)10−25(−30) cm, covered with simple hairs, with glandular hairs or with both. Stipules entire or minutely toothed. Leaflets 5−8(−12) × 2−7 mm, shortly obovate, rarely oblanceolate, retuse to emarginate, with a small terminal tooth. Peduncles with (2−)3−6(−8) crowded flowers, usually longer than petiole. Flowers 2−4 mm. Calyx teeth unequal, about as long as tube. Corolla less than twice as long as calyx. Young fruit protruding sideways from the calyx. Fruit pubescent or glabrescent, discoid or cylindrical to ovoid, 3−5 mm high, spiny; coils 3−5, loose, thin, pergamentaceous, 2.5−4.5(−6) mm diam., last coil of pod smaller than first; surface of coils with 6−8 strongly curved unbranched radial veins running into a veinless submarginal border; spines varying from short tubercles to long, hooked spines, twice as long as the diam. of fruit, grooved nearly to tip;

insertion of spines slightly removed from the marginal border, at 180° on middle coil and at c. 130° on the first and last coils.

 

var. minima

Fruit discoid; spines hooked, longer than half the radius of the coils.

 

Flowering time: March−May.

Habitat: Rocky limestone slopes, steppe, sand dunes, fields, etc. s.l.−1750 m.

 

Reference:

Heyn CC & Davis PH (1970). Medicago minima (L.) Bart., In: Davis PH (ed.) Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 3: 497−498.

Public Description:

Medicago minima var. minima, known as “bur medick”, is native to the Mediterranean basin but is also found worldwide. It is an annual plant with yellow flowers, and grows up to 25 cm in length. It blooms between March and May and is found in rocky limenstone slopes, steppe, sand dunes and fields. The best-known member of the genus is alfalfa (Medicago Sativa L.), an important forage crop.

 

References:

Anonymous 1.(2016). https:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicago_minima /, Accessed date: 09.02.2016.

Anonymous 2 (2016). https:/gobotany.newenglandwild.org/species/medicago/minima/ /, Accessed date: 09.02.2016.

Keskin M (2012). Medicago L., In: Güner, A., Aslan, S., Ekim, T., Vural, M. & Babaç, M.T. (eds.), Türkiye Bitkileri Listesi (Damarlı Bitkiler). Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanik Bahçesi ve Flora Araştırmaları Derneği Yayını. İstanbul, pp. 473–477.