Fabaceae - Papilionoideae - Trifolieae - *Medicago L.
Description:
Herbs, rarely shrubs
Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate, veins of leaflets usually extended into teeth on margin; stipules entire, dentate, incised or laciniate
Flowers yellow, purple, mauve or pale lilac, in axillary racemes or heads, or sometimes subsolitary; bracts small or 0
Calyx with campanulate tube; lobes longer than tube
Petals: vexillum sessile; wings oblong, eared, clawed; keel shorter than wings, obtuse, with a linear claw
Stamens diadelphous, with vexillary stamen free; filaments with uniform anthers
Ovary sessile or subsessile, sometimes twisted, sometimes papillose, (1)- several- to many-ovuled; style variable, with oblique, subcapitate stigma
Pod spirally falcate, often spiny, often hooked, or somewhat curved and unarmed
Seeds ovoid, slightly reniform, partitioned or nonpartitioned, pale yellow to yellow-brown
x = 7, 8, 9 (high polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
*Medicago L.
Linnaeus: 778 (1753)
Harvey: 162 (1862)
Stirton: 27 (1982)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species ± 50, Europe, except for northernmost part, Africa, and Asia; often naturalised in warm climates
Southern Africa: Species 4, naturalised, widespread
References:
HARVEY, W.H. 1862. Leguminosae. Flora capensis 2
LINNAEUS, C. 1753. Species plantarum, edn 1. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
STIRTON, C.H. 1982. The genus Medicago (Leguminosae) in southern Africa. Bothalia 14
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Biodiversity Advisor, developed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and its Data Partners, is a system that will provide integrated biodiversity information to a wide range of users who will have access to geospatial data, plant and animal species distribution data, ecosystem-level data, literature, images and metadata.
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