MEDICAGO MARINA

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

Common Name:- Sea medick

Homotypic Synonyms:- Medica marina, Medica maritima.

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

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

Marina (L) Marine, growing by or in the sea.

General description:- Perennial with a long, tough taproot and creeping rhizomes.

Stems:-

1) 10-30 cm, procumbent, whole plant densely whitish-tomentose.

Leaves:-

1) Leaflets, 4-10 x 3-6 mm, obovate-cuneate, truncate, obscurely dentate at the

apex.

Flowers:-

1) 5-12 in short-pedunculate, capitate racemes.

2) Corolla, 7-10 mm, bright yellow.

Fruit:-

1) Legume, with 3-5 rather loose coils, subglobose to shortly cylindrical, 6-8 mm in

diam., truncate at both ends, villous, with short, distant spines ± concealed by the

dense wool.

Key features:-

1) Legume, with a strong submarginal vein, or with a wide veinless border, with a

distinct hole through the centre.

2) White-tomentose perennial.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- A typical species of sandy beaches, with Calystegia soldanella, Cyperus

capitatus, Euphorbia papalias etc., rarely in ruderal habitats a short distance

inland.

Distribution:- Throughout Greece. - Shores of the Mediterranean region, SW

Europe and the Black Sea. Fairly widespread and along the coastal areas of Crete.

Flowering time:- Late Mar to June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton