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alfalfa, lucerne, purple medick

black-disc medic, blackdisk medick, button burclover, button-clover, large-disc medic, miegla de caracolillo, round leafed medick

Habit Herbs: shoots glabrescent to pubescent, hairs eglandular [glandular]. Herbs: shoots usually glabrous or glabrescent, hairs usally eglandular, sparse, rarely gland-tipped.
Stems

prostrate to erect.

usually procumbent, sometimes ascending.

Leaflets

blades obovate to linear or oblanceolate, 5–35 × 2–15 mm, margins serrate distally.

blades obovate to cuneate, 7–13 × 5–10 mm, margins serrate on distal 1/3–2/3.

Inflorescences

3–30(–50)-flowered, racemes.

1- or 2(–5)-flowered, racemes, usually 1 pod developing on each peduncle.

Flowers

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.

3–4(–6) mm;

calyx glabrous or sparsely hairy, hairs eglandular, lobes equal to tube;

corolla yellow, to 2 times length of calyx.

Legumes

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.

with (2–)3–7 coils, lenticular or discoid, 5–10 × 8–20(–24) mm, coil edges papery at margins, glabrous, glabrescent, sometimes hairs gland-tipped;

coil face with fusing radial veins, often thickened at coil margin.

Seeds

2–12, yellow, brownish, greenish yellow, or violet-brown, reniform, 1–2.5 × 1–1.5 mm.

9–30, yellow, brownish yellow or reddish brown, triangular, 2.5–3 × 2.5–3 mm.

Stipules

margins entire or basally toothed.

margins laciniate.

2n

= 16, 32.

= 16.

Medicago sativa

Medicago orbicularis

Phenology Flowering spring–summer.
Habitat Ruderal and fallow habi­tats, hilly slopes.
Elevation 0–600 m. (0–2000 ft.)
Distribution
from USDA
n Mexico; Eurasia [Introduced in North America; introduced also in West Indies, Central America, South America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay), Pacific Islands, Australia]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; CA; FL; GA; IL; KY; LA; MD; MS; NC; NJ; OK; PA; TN; TX; s Europe; w Asia; n Africa [Introduced in North America; introduced also in South America (Argentina), s Africa, Pacific Islands (Hawaii), Australia]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

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.)

Medicago orbicularis is cultivated to a minor degree as a forage plant, and there is at least one cultivar; it is uncertain if it is native or introduced in Europe and central Asia.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
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
Source FNA vol. 11. FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Medicago > sect. Medicago Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Medicago > sect. Orbiculares
Sibling taxa
M. arabica, M. laciniata, M. lupulina, M. minima, M. monspeliaca, M. orbicularis, M. polymorpha, M. praecox, M. rigidula, M. scutellata, M. truncatula, M. turbinata
M. arabica, M. laciniata, M. lupulina, M. minima, M. monspeliaca, M. polymorpha, M. praecox, M. rigidula, M. sativa, M. scutellata, M. truncatula, M. turbinata
Subordinate taxa
M. sativa subsp. falcata, M. sativa subsp. sativa, M. sativa subsp. × varia
Synonyms M. polymorpha var. orbicularis
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 778. (1753) (Linnaeus) Bartalini: Cat. Piante Siena, 60. (1776)
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