MEDICAGO CILIARIS

Family and Genus:- See- LEGUMINOSAE/Subgen. MEDICAGO

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- Medica ciliaris, Medicago echinus subsp. ciliaris,

Medicago intertexta subsp. ciliaris, Medicago intertexta var. ciliaris, Medicago

polymorpha var. ciliaris.

Meaning:- Medicago (Gr) Median-grass, A name used by the Greek physician

and botanist Dioscorides, from a Persian name for lucerne, or medick.

Ciliaris (L) Fringed, (with hairs extending from an edge).

General description:- Rather robust, subglabrous annual, generally branched from

the base.

Stem:-

1) Up to 50 cm, ascending,

Leaves:-

1) Leaflets, obovate, cuneate, denticulate, serrate at least in upper half. sometimes

with a dark spot.

2) Stipules, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, incise-dentate.

Flower:-

1) Inflorescence, 1-4(-10)-flowered, but usually only 1 or 2 fruits developing.

2) Peduncles, ± equalling the pedicels.

3) Corolla, 5-7 mm, yellow..

Fruit:-

1) Legume, villous, with glandular hairs.

a) young, protruding sideways from the calyx.

b) mature, subglobose, 10-16 mm in diam., with several dense coils, intricately

spiny and covered with multicellular hairs; surface of the coils with a network

of thin veins.

Key features:-

1) Legume, 10-20 mm diam, covered by multicellular hairs. With well-developed,

marginal and/or submarginal spines

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Saline meadows by the coast, occasionally some distance inland

(especially in Crete) in vineyards, olive graves and ruderal habitats, to 700 m.

On Crete sparsly scattered across the central reagion.

Distribution:- Scattered in W Greece. - E Mediterranean region.

Flowering time:- Late Mar-mid May

Photos by:- A, N. Other