Image of Medicago lupulina var. glandulosa

Description:

Slo.: hmeljna meteljka - syn.: Medicago cupaniana - Habitat: mountain pasture, next to the wood edge, modestly southeast inclined mountain slope; calcareous, colluvial, skeletal ground; open, dry place, partly sunny, precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 7-9 deg C, elevation 620 m (2.030 feet), alpine phytogeographical region. Substratum: soil. Comment: Genus Medicago is very large. Almost all its members have yellow flowers and trifoliate leaves. Although many of the species look similar in flower, the fruits vary greatly from one species to another and are very important in identification. Medicago lupulina is a very common plant. It grows all over Europe from low land to subalpine elevations of all European mountains, in the whole Mediterranean, Asia and North Africa. It is considered a 'weed', and hence never closely looked at. Yet, it is beautiful. Very small flowers, from only 2 to 3 mm long, are in small, rounded racemes each having 20 to 40 tiny flowers. Pods are characteristically coiled into a circle. They look like a clump of very small, snail houses only 1.5 to 3 mm in diameter. They are black when ripe (picture 3 shows unripe, still green pods). The plant usually grows on ruderal ground, cultivated ground, waste land and track sides and nutrients rich ground. The habitat of this find is actually quite unusual. Medicago lupulina can be hairy or glabrous. Since the leaflets and pods of the plants found are hairy this is var. glandulosa. Ref.: (1) D. Aeschimann, K. Lauber, D.M. Moser, J.P. Theurillat, Flora Alpina, Vol. 1., Haupt (2004), p 906. (2) M.A. Fischer, W. Adler, K. Oswald, Exkursionsflora fr sterreich, Liechtenstein und Sdtirol, LO Landesmuseen, Linz, Austria (2005), p 562. (3) A. Martini et all., Mala Flora Slovenije (Flora of Slovenia - Key) (in Slovenian), Tehnina Zaloba Slovenije (2007), p 300. (4) M. Blamey, C. Grey-Wilson, Wild Flowers of the Mediterranean, A & C Black, London (2005), p 96.