Citation: Rohde ex Lois., Not. Pl. Fr. 118 (1810).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Strand medic, harbinger medic.

Description:
Sparsely villous annual herb: branches 7-100 cm long, procumbent or ascending, branching from the base; leaflets obovate or obcordate, 8-20 x 5-15 mm, dentate towards the apex, sparsely hairy above, more densely underneath; petiole longer than the leaflets; stipules lanceolate, incise-dentate.

Peduncle 1-5-flowered, cuspidate, about as long as the corresponding petiole; florets 4-7 mm long, on a pedicel shorter than the calyx tube; bract narrow-triangular, acute, scarious, longer than the pedicel; calyx 2.5-3.5 mm long, with appressed or spreading hairs, teeth equalling the tube, 5 veins from the base each extending into 1 narrow-triangular acute tooth; petals bright-yellow; standard obovate; wings usually slightly shorter than the keel;

Young pod glabrous, enclosed within the calyx, later protruding sideways between the calyx teeth; mature pod discoid to cylindrical, 3.5-6 mm diam., in a clockwise or anticlockwise spiral of 3-6 coils, glabrous, spiny or not, transverse veins nearly straight, scarcely anastomosing except near the lateral vein; lateral veins separated from the keeled dorsal vein by shallow grooves which disappear at maturity; spines if present 6-8 on each side of the coil, 1-4 mm long, conical, stocky, inserted at 90ø-180ø to the face of the coil, arising from the submarginal vein or spongy tissue; seeds c. 3 mm long, pale-yellow to brownish-yellow, 1 or 2 in each coil.

Image source: fig. 350E in J.P. Jessop and H.R. Toelken Ed. 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Heyn (1963) Annual species of Medicago, fig. 23.

Distribution:  S.Aust.: EP, NL, MU, YP, SL, SE.   W.Aust.; Tas.   native to the Mediterranean. Sown as a stock forage. Conservation status: naturalised Flowering time: July — Dec.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: Occasionally there may be spiny tuberculate and almost spineless pods on the same plant or spines and tubercles may be different on the coils of the same pod. (K. A. & I. Lesins, p. 163).

Author: Not yet available