Medicago minima
bur medic, bur medick, burclover, burr medick, goldfields or kaalgoorlie or least or little medic, little bur-clover, little medick, small bur clover
ascending or procumbent.
blades usually obovate, rarely oblanceolate, 5–8(–12) × 2–7 mm, margins serrate on distal 1/3.
2–5(–8)-flowered, racemes.
2–4.5(–6) mm;
calyx pubescent, hairs eglandular and/or glandular, lobes equal to tube;
corolla yellow, less than 2 times length of calyx.
with 3–5 coils, discoid, cylindrical, or ovoid, 3–5 × 2.5–6 mm, hairs glandular and/or eglandular, margin usually prickly, sometimes tuberculate, prickles, when present, often relatively thin and flexible, base 2-rooted, 1 root arising in dorsal suture, other in submarginal vein;
faces soft, coil face with strongly curved, unbranched radial veins entering broad, veinless margin that occupies 1/3 outer radius of coil face.
3–10, yellow to light brown, somewhat reniform, 1.5–2.5 × 0.9–1.3 mm;
radicle 1/2 seed length.
margins entire or minutely dentate at base.
= 16.
Medicago minima
Medicago minima has been only slightly developed to date for agricultural purposes, although in areas where it grows it is considered to be good forage. In Argentina and Australia, M. minima is an extremely important component of the rangelands used for livestock grazing. The first cultivar of M. minima to be registered (as ‘Devine’) was released in 2005 by the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station.
Medicago minima is most frequently confused with M. laciniata, but M. minima has much hairier foliage and much less dissected stipules.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
- Local floras:
BC, 
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
Go Botany, 
KS Wildflowers, 
LA Plants, 
MD Biodiversity, 
MI Flora, 
MO Plants, 
PNW Herbaria 
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
