MEDICAGO TRUNCATULA

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

Common Names:- Early medick

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.

Truncatula (L) Cut off blunt-ended.

General description:- Sparsely annual with long, villous.

Stem:-

1) Up to 50 cm.

Leaves:-

1) Leaflets, obovate or obcordate, cuneate, denticulate near the apex,

2) Stipules, ovate-lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, incise-dentate or laciniate in

the lower half.

Flowers:-

1) Racemes, 1- to 3(-5) flowered.

2) Corolla, 5-6 mm

Fruit:-

1) Legume, 5-8 mm in diam, in a spiral of 3-6 turns, cylindrical, nearly always

sparsely villous, spiny; transverse veins scarcely anastomosing, joining a very

thick submarginal vein separated from the slender but distinct marginal vein by

the groove; spines up to more than half as long as the diameter of the legume,

curved or uncinate, each arising partly from the marginal and partly from the

submarginal vein.

Key features:-

1) Racemes, usually with 1-3 flowers.

2) Legume, nearly always sparsely villous, always spiny; spines usually long,

curved.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Sandy coastal habitats, dry open shrubby vegetation, field margins, dry

grassland, archaeological sites. 0-800 m. (occasionally higher).

Distribution:- Throughout Greece. - Mediterranean region, naturalised or casual

elsewhere. On Crete widely scattered.

Flowering time:- Mar-May.

Photos by:- Len Worthington