Skip to main content

Medicago lupulina L.
Black Medic

Reference
Sp.Pl. [Linnaeus] 2:779 (1753)
Conservation Code
Not threatened
Naturalised Status
Alien to Western Australia
Name Status
Current

Procumbent or ascending annual or perennial (short-lived), herb. Fl. yellow, Oct to Nov or Feb. Wet areas along river, parklands.

Amanda Spooner, Descriptive Catalogue, 17 August 2007

Scientific Description

Prostrate,spreading or scrambling, herb. Stems terete, not spiny, glabrous; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, compound, alternate, not continuous with stem, 15-30 mm long, glabrous, flat with flat margins; margins entire, leaflets 3, pinnately arranged, terminal leaflet present, stalked. Stipules present and persistent to older leaves, 8 mm long, without glands, ribless. Corolla uniformly coloured, yellow, not beaked (?). Stamens ten. Fruit stipitate, not constricted between the seeds, round in cross-section, not beaked. Flowers in February, October and November. Occurs in the South-West Botanical Province, in the Avon Wheatbelt, Jarrah Forest, Warren, Esperance and Swan Coastal Plain IBRA regions.

C. Hollister and K.R. Thiele, 17 April 2024

Distribution

IBRA Regions
Avon Wheatbelt, Esperance Plains, Jarrah Forest, Swan Coastal Plain, Warren.
IBRA Subregions
Merredin, Perth, Recherche, Southern Jarrah Forest, Warren.
Local Government Areas (LGAs)
Albany, Denmark, Esperance, Harvey, Nungarin.