Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 778 (1753).

Derivation: Name originally formed by Jacques Delachamp, 1513-1588, from the Latin medica, lucerne, so called because lucerne was believed to have been introduced into Europe from Media, a province of the Persian Empire.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Medics.

Description:
Annual or perennial prostrate decumbent rarely upright herbs or small shrubs; hairs simple, 1-celled or many-celled, frequently tipped by glandular roundish sticky tips; leaves 3-foliolate, denticulate; petiole longer or shorter than the leaflets; upper leaflet distal from lateral ones; stipules adnate to the petiole by their base, usually toothed.

2-several, rarely 1, flowers in axillary pedunculate racemes, the peduncle often ending in a cusp or an awn or bristle as long as the terminal flower, (the flowers occasionally solitary, or the raceme may be so short that it looks like a few-flowered cluster); bracts small, persistent; bracteoles wanting; calyx campanulate, with 5 nearly equal teeth; petals yellow (pinkish or purplish in M. sativa), caducous; standard obovate, longest; wings and keel obtuse; 9 stamens with fused filaments around the ovary; the tenth free, facing the standard; ovary with 1 to many (20 or more) ovules; style with a minutely capitate stigma.

Pod (burr) longer than the calyx, usually spirally coiled, sometimes falcate, reniform or almost straight, straw-yellow to black, nearly always indehiscent, often with a row of spines or tubercles on the dorsal suture which is usually formed of a thickened region of 1 central and 2 lateral veins; spines stocky or slender with their base of 2 prongs usually connected by a membrane; coils loose or tight, formation of spiralling clockwise or anticlockwise starting while the pod is still within the calyx (in S.Aust. species); seed 1 to many, somewhat reniform, yellowish, mostly smooth; cotyledons without articulation.

Distribution:  1 shrub, 21 herbaceous perennials and 34 annuals. Native to the Old World.

Biology: No text

Uses: Many species are now cultivated or adventive in temperate parts of the world; providing good pasture. (C. C. Heyn (1963) The annual species of Medicago; K. A. & I. Lesins (1979) Genus Medicago (Leguminosae).

Key to Species:

1. Pod with spines and tubercles on the dorsal suture; annuals
2. Pods (including spines) 1-2 cm across, spherical or ovoid, covered with appressed spines, 5-7 mm long
3. Pods glabrous, eglandular (except sometimes for the spines); leaves often with a basal reddish-brown spot	M. intertexta 3.
3. Pods pubescent and glandular; leaves without a dark spot	M. ciliaris 2.
2. Pods (excluding the spreading spines) less than 8 mm wide
4. Spines, if present, slender, their base with 2 prongs (roots) connected by a membrane, I prong inserted in the central vein, the other in the lateral vein or in a veinless zone; pods soft-walled, central part of each coil consisting mainly of veins with thin membranous tissue between them; coils more or less loose and may be pulled apart releasing the seed
5. Pods central vein stocky, convex, conspicuously enlarged, not sulcate, completely or almost completely covering the grooves between the central and lateral veins viewed from the edge (coils loose)	M. praecox 10.
5. Pods edge sulcate, grooves between central and lateral veins observable viewed from the edge
6. Leaflets often with a dark spot; pods central vein 1-grooved, lying in grooves of the 2 marginal veins in 1 level, the dorsal suture therefore having 4 ridges with 3 grooves	M. arabica 1.
6. Leaflets never with a dark spot; pods veins not sulcate, central vein elevated above the lateral veins.
7. Wings shorter than the keel; leaflets usually incise-dentate or almost pinnatifid; groove on pod between central and lateral veins narrow, hardly visible when the pod is viewed from the edge	M. laciniata 4.
7. Wings longer than the keel; leaves regularly dentate; groove between central and lateral veins of pod very wide and visible when the pod is viewed from the edge
8. Stipules entire or slightly toothed; pod globular, 3-4 mm wide (excluding spines); pods sparsely villous and often glandular, transverse veins sigmoid, not anastomosing; coils turning clockwise	M. minima 7.
8. Stipules deeply incised; pod discoid to shortly cylindrical, 7-10 mm wide (excluding spines); pods usually glabrous or nearly so, transverse veins curved but not sigmoid, anastomosing freely; coils turning anti-clockwise	M. polymorpha 9.
4. Spines, if present, stocky, their base conical, often embedded in spongy tissue; pods hard-walled, coils tight (for release of seed, crushing of pod may be necessary), venation of the face of the coil usually not clearly discernible
9. Pods glabrous; transverse veins of the pods nearly straight; spines not sulcate at the base, inserted at 180º to the plane of the coil face	M. littoralis 5.
9. Pods with sparse hairs; transverse veins of the pods strongly curved; spines sulcate at the base, inserted at 90º to the coil face	M. truncatula 14.
1. Pods without spines or tubercles; annuals and perennials
10. Pod reniform, a small l-seeded nutlet (less than 3.5 mm long), its tip twisted in a small coil (blackish when mature)	M. lupulina 6.
10. Pods with 2-5 coils (more than 5 mm wide)
11. Coils of pod imbricate like a set of bowls, with their convex parts towards the apex and the base, or towards the base only (pods cup-shaped, c. 10 mm wide, maturing brown)	M. scutellata 13.
11. Coils of pod more or less loose, not markedly imbricate
12. Plant glabrous or almost so; pods 10-20 mm wide, papery (light-straw-coloured to black), dorsal suture a slender but distinct vein	M. orbicularis 8.
12. Plant pubescent; pods 3-9 mm wide
13. Flowers yellow, 4-5 mm long; wings shorter than the keel; pod dorsal suture rugose with 20-24 ribs	M. rugosa 11.
13. Flowers purplish, violet or white, 8-10 mm long; wings longer than the keel; pod dorsal suture smooth	M. sativa 12.

Author: Not yet available