MEDICAGO RUGOSA

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

Common Names:- Wrinkled 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.

Rugosa (L) Wrinkled, rugose.

General description:- Glandular-pubescent annual.

Stems:-

1) 15-50 cm, rather stout, ascending, sulcate, shortly glandular- and eglandular-

pubescent.

Leaves:-

1) Leaflets, obovate, cuneate, dentate at least in the upper half.

2) Stipules, lanceolate, incise-dentate, or nearly so.

Flowers:-

1) Peduncles, 2-5-flowered, shorter than the petiole of the subtending leaf.

2) Corolla, 3-4 mm, orange or pale yellow.

Fruit:-

1) Legume, broadly discoid, usually 7-10 mm in diam., without spines, glabrous or

sparsely glandular-pubescent, with 2-4 flat coils; radiating veins on the surface of

the coils sparsely anastomosing, thickened towards the margin, which thus

appears rugose. 3-10 seeded,

2) Seeds, kidney shaped, surface smooth, olive, brown or black.

Key features:-

1) Transverse veins of the legume becoming thickened towards the thick marginal

vein.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Generally a weed of cultivated and fallow fields and olive groves,

occasionally in open coniferous woodland and other semi-natural habitats. 0-600(-

1100) m.

Distribution:- Widespread in the Mediterranean region. Fairly widespread on Crete.

Flowering time:- Mar-May.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton