Medicago sativa
Medicago scutellata
alfalfa, lucerne, purple medick
shield medic, snail medick
prostrate to erect.
usually ascending, sometimes prostrate or decumbent.
blades obovate to linear or oblanceolate, 5–35 × 2–15 mm, margins serrate distally.
blades obovate, ovate, ovate-lanceolate, or oblanceolate, 10–25 × 5–12 mm, margins serrate on distal 2/3 or less.
3–30(–50)-flowered, racemes.
1–3(or 4)-flowered, racemes or heads.
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.
6–9 mm;
calyx pubescent, hairs glandular, sometimes also eglandular, lobes equal to or longer than tube;
corolla yellow to orange-yellow, less than 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.
with (4–)5–7(–8) coils, coils concave (“bowl-like”) and imbricated, stacked within each other, convex surface facing pod base, 7–20 × 7–15(–19) mm, with glandular hairs, margin prickleless;
coil face with dense net of veins.
2–12, yellow, brownish, greenish yellow, or violet-brown, reniform, 1–2.5 × 1–1.5 mm.
5–15, light yellow to brown, reniform, 4–7 × 2.5–4 mm;
radicle less than 1/2 seed length.
margins entire or basally toothed.
margins dentate, incised, or laciniate.
= 16, 32.
= 16, 28, 30, 32.
Medicago sativa
Medicago scutellata
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 scutellata is one of the principal annual species of the genus from which forage cultivars have been developed, mainly in Australia during the latter half of the twentieth century. In Victorian times, the plant was popular in gardens, and the species is occasionally used as an ornamental cover for dry, sunny banks. In the flora area, it has been found in California (E. Dean et al. 2008) and Maryland (C. F. Reed 1964).
Most chromosome counts are 2n = 32; however, G. R. Bauchan and J. H. Elgin (1984) found only 2n = 30 in numerous plants, and pointed out that the large chromosomal satellites present in this species may have led to the erroneous chromosome counts of 2n = 32.
(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, 
Go Botany, 
IL Wildflowers, 
KS Wildflowers, 
LA Plants, 
MD Biodiversity, 
MI Flora, 
MN Wildflowers, 
MO Plants, 
PNW Herbaria, 
SW CO Wildflowers, Turner Photog. 
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
