Herbs: shoots sparsely to mod­erately pubescent, hairs eglan­dular and glandular. Stems pro­cumbent to ascending. Stipules: margins deeply dentate to lobed. Leaflets: blades cuneate, obovate, or obcordate, 8–25 × 7–20 mm, margins serrate on distal 1/3, often with conspicuous central, purple-red (anthocyanin) blotch adaxially. Inflorescences (1 or)2–5(–8)-flowered, racemes. Flowers 4–5(–6) mm; calyx pubescent, hairs eglandular, sometimes multicellular and gland-tipped, lobes equal to or longer than tube; corolla yellow, 2 times length of calyx. Legumes with 3–5(–7) coils, shortly ellipsoid to subglobose (ends rounded), or discoid to cylindriform (ends flattened), (4–)5–9 × (4–)5–7(–8) mm, glabrous, margin usually prickly, sometimes tuberculate, prickles, when present, often relatively thin and flexible, base 2-rooted, 1 root arising in dorsal suture, other in submarginal vein; faces soft, coil face with venation anastomosing considerably on outer 1/3, coil edge in end view shows central groove flanked by lateral grooves to form pattern of 3 grooves separating 4 ridges, not visible in side view of coil. Seeds 2+, yellow or yellow-brown, reniform, 2–3.5 × 1.2–1.5 mm; radicle usually slightly more than 1/2 seed length. 2n = 16.

Phenology: Flowering spring–summer.
Habitat: Edges of woods, shrub thickets, meadows, cleared or disturbed areas.
Elevation: 0–1000 m.

Distribution

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Introduced; B.C., N.B., Ala., Ariz., Ark., Calif., Conn., D.C., Fla., Ga., Ill., La., Maine, Mass., Miss., Mo., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Okla., Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Vt., Va., Wash., Europe, w Asia, n Africa, introduced also in Central America, South America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay), Pacific Islands (New Zealand), Australia.

Discussion

Medicago arabica is sown for forage only to a small extent.

Although the majority of Medicago plants cannot be identified to species with much certainty without fruits, in most cases vegetative plants with purplish blotches on the centers of the leaflets will be this species. However, these markings occur occasionally on other annual species of Medicago and are absent from some plants of M. arabica.

Medicago maculata Sibthorp and M. maculata Willdenow are illegitimate names that pertain here.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.