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Photographer: Kitty Kohout
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Family Fabaceae
Medicago lupulina L.
black medick
Medicago: derived from Medike, or medick, the Greek name for alfalfa, which came to Greece from Medea
lupulina: hop-like; lupus for "wolf;" small wolf, the hop was called a willow-wolf for the tree on which it climbed
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| Status: | Introduced - naturalized |
| Plant: | sprawling to erect annual/biennial, up to 32" tall forb |
| Flower: | yellow, 5-parted, 1/8" long, keel (top petal) smooth, calyx not 2-lipped; inflorescence a dense, up to 1/3" roundish head with 10-50 stalkless flowers; blooms May-Sept. |
| Fruit: | black, kidney-shaped pod with 1 seed |
| Leaf: | 3-parted with oval leaflets, the end leaflet stalked |
| Habitat: | disturbed sites |
| Notes: | Similar to the hop-clovers, Trifolium aureum and T. camprestre which have larger flower heads |
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