SPECIES DESCRIPTION
MEDICAGO ARABICA
Family and Genus:- See- LEGUMINOSAE/Subgen. CYMATIUM
Common Name:- Spotted medick, Calvary clover.
Homotypic Synonyms:- Medica arabica, Medica echinata, Medica maculata
Medicago arabica var. maculata, Medicago maculata, Medicago polymorpha
var. arabica.
Meaning:- Medicago (Gr) Median-grass, A name used by the Greek physician
and botanist Dioscorides, from a Persian name for lucerne, or medick.
Arabica (L) Of Arabia, Arabian.
General description:- Sparsely pubescent to glabrous annual.
Stem:-
1) Up to 50 cm. angled or sulcate, with sparse, long, multicellular hairs.
Leaves:-
1) Long-pedunculate.
2) Leaflets, obovate to obtriangular, dentate in front, usually with a conspicuous,
dark central blotch.
3) Stipules, deeply dentate to laciniate.
Flowers:-
1) Peduncles, much shorter than the pedicels.
2) Inflorescence, usually 2-5-flowered.
3) Corolla, 4-5 mm, pale yellow.
Fruit:-
1) Legume, (4-)5-6 mm diam, in a lax spiral of 4-7 turns, subglobose to shortly
ellipsoid, somewhat flattened at both ends, glabrous, usually spiny; transverse
veins curved, anastomosing and forming a tangentially elongated network near
the margin.
a) margin, with 3 grooves, the lateral deeper and wider than the central;
b) spines, usually 1/2-3/4 as long as the diameter of the legume, deeply sulcate.
Key features:-
1) Margin of the legume keeled or rounded; spines usually patent.
2) Leaflets, nearly always with a dark spot.
3) Legume, marginal vein, sulcate, margin, with 3 conspicuous grooves.
Habitat:- Damp meadows, olive groves, mixed scrub, shaded banks. 0-600(-1200)
m.
Distribution:- Throughout Greece. - Widespread in Europe, the Mediterranean area
and SW Asia. Widespread and common on Crete, but scarce in the far east of the
island.
Flowering time:- Late Mar to early June.
Photos by:- Enda McMullen.
