MEDICAGO DOLIATA

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

Common Name:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

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

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

Doliata. Meaning unknown.

General description:- Sparsely pilose annual, usually branched from the base.

Stems:-

1) 15-40 cm., ascending,

Leaves:-

1) Leafets of the upper leaves obovate-cuneate, sharply serrulate in the upper half.

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

Flowers:-

1) Peduncles, slender, somewhat longer than the leaves.

2) Inflorescence, 3-6-flowered but often only a single fruit developing.

3) Corolla, 5-8 mm, yellow.

Fruit:-

1) Legume, spherical to broadly ellipsoid, tightly coiled, (7-10 mm in diam.), ±

pubescent., hardened at maturity;

a) fruit coils, surface usually with a narrow submarginal border.

b) spines, lacking or short and conical.

Key features:-

1) Legume, spherical to broadly ellipsoid, tightly coiled,

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Dry open shrubby vegetation, scrubland vegetation , olive groves, field

margins, 0-900 m.

Distribution:- Coastal areas of W Greece, lacking in most of the mainland. -

Widespread but scattered in the Mediterranean region; often confused with M.

turbinata.

Flowering time:- April to early June.

Photos by:-