Medicago sativa
alfalfa, lucerne, purple medick
prostrate to erect.
blades obovate to linear or oblanceolate, 5–35 × 2–15 mm, margins serrate distally.
3–30(–50)-flowered, racemes.
5–15 mm;
calyx glabrous or pubescent, hairs eglandular or glandular, lobes equal to tube;
corolla usually purple, yellow, or variegated yellow-violet, rarely violet, green, or white, [yellow-orange, pink], 2 times length of calyx.
curved or with 1.5–6 coils, falcate when curved, lenticular, ovoid, or cylindrical when coiled, 7–15 × 1.5–3 mm when falcate, 4–14 × 3–9 mm when coiled, glabrescent or pubescent with eglandular and/or glandular hairs;
face veins (when coiled) oblique from ventral suture, slightly branched, fusing towards dorsal suture.
2–12, yellow, brownish, greenish yellow, or violet-brown, reniform, 1–2.5 × 1–1.5 mm.
margins entire or basally toothed.
= 16, 32.
Medicago sativa
Subspecies 6 (3, including 1 hybrid, in the flora).
Medicago sativa is the most widely grown of the temperate forage legumes. Wherever it is cultivated, escapes are likely to be found in the vicinity, and the species has become established in most countries. This polymorphic Old World species is complicated by polyploidy, hybridization, and domestication and has been divided by some (E. Small 2011) into several species (dozens, by some Russian taxonomists) and innumerable infraspecific taxa. The natural habitats of the wild progenitors of M. sativa in Asia (mostly in the former U.S.S.R.) are rapidly being decimated, and there is considerable danger that valuable genetic diversity is being lost.
According to the literature cited below, the three subspecies in the flora region should be expected in all provinces and territories of Canada, and in all states.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Flowers usually purple, sometimes violet, not bicolored, very rarely white; legumes with at least 1.5 coils, usually 2–6. | subsp. sativa |
1. Flowers yellow or variegated yellow-violet, rarely green or violet; legumes falcate or with fewer than 1.5 coils. | → 2 |
2. Flowers yellow; legumes falcate, less than 0.5 coil. | subsp. falcata |
2. Flowers usually variegated yellow-violet, sometimes green, yellow, or violet; legumes with 0.8–1.4 coils. | subsp. × varia |
- Local floras:
BC, 
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
PNW Herbaria, Turner Photog. 
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
