MEDICAGO MUREX

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

Common Name:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- Medicago murex var. aculeata, Medicago tribuloides

subsp. murex.

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

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

Murex (L)

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

Stems:-

1) 15-40 cm. ascending.

Leaves:-

1) Leaflets, obcordate or obtriangular.

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

3) At least the mature leaflets glabrous.

Flowers:-

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

2) Inflorescence, 1- or 2-flowered.

3) Corolla, 4-5 mm, lemon yellow.

Fruit:-

1) Legume, 5-9 mm in diam, in a right-handed spiral of 5-9 turns sometimes not

spiny, submarginal and marginal veins distinct forming 3 keels; spines usually

a) coils, with 3 narrow furrows on the back, surface, strongly appressed and

almost confluent in mature fruits.

b) spines, usually long, broad, obtuse, rarely acute and up to 1/2 as long as the

diam., of the legume.

Key features:-

1) Legume, always in a right-handed spiral.

2) Margin, with 3 keels.

3) Spines, usually long, acute.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Damp meadows in sandy habitats by the coast, seasonally damp

patches in dry open shrubby vegetation, by streams and tracks, generally on

noncalcareous substrates. 0-900 m.

Distribution:- Scattered in coastal areas of W Greece. - widespread in the

Mediterranean region. Sparsely scattered across Crete, but more common in the

west.

Flowering time:- April to early June.

Photos by:- A.N. Other