Relatives
Medicago lanigera C. Winkl. & B. Fedtsch. - Woolly Medick.
Taxonomic position.
Family Fabaceae Lindl., genus Medicago L.Morphology and biology.
Annual herbaceous plant. Stems 10-30 cm tall, poorly hairy. Stipules with 1.3 teeth at the base, usually hamately curved in upper part; leaflets narrow, obovate-cuneate, acutely dentate in upper part, lower ones with incision at apex, poorly pubescent. Corolla small, pale yellow, nearly as long as calyx; calyx teeth subulate, longer than tube; inflorescences 1-flowered, shorter than floral leaf; pod 5.8 mm diameter, compressed or shortly cylindrical, with 3.4 spiral twists, reticulately veined, with entire margin, without prickles, wholly covered with long dense pinnate pubescence, the latter wrapping the pod entirely to put it into globose shape. Flowers in May, fruits in June. Autogamous plant. 2n=?Distribution.
Endemic to the mountain Central Asia.Ecology.
On dry stony slopes in middle montane zone, 600.900 m s. m.Economic value.
Undergrade forage plant.References:
Goncharov PL., Lubenets PA. 1985. Biological aspects of medick cultivation. Novosibirsk: Nauka. 253 p. (In Russian).Grossheim AA. 1945. Medick - Medicago L. In: Shishkin BK., ed. 1945. Flora URSS. V.11. P.129-176. (In Russian).
Sinskaya EN. 1950. Medick. In: Cultivated flora of the USSR. V.13, No.1. P.7-344. (In Russian).
Khasanov OKh. 1972. Wild medicks of Central Asia. Tashkent: FAN. 169 p. (In Russian).
Lesins KA., Lesins I. 1979. Genus Medicago (Leguminosae). A taxogenetic study. 228 p.