Medicago truncatula Gaertn.

Spice Fruit In the field In the field 2

Family: LEGUMINOSAE

Genus: Medicago

Province distribution: Alacant. Balearic Islands. Barcelona. Castelló. Girona. Lleida. Tarragona. València.

Distribution in the islands: Mallorca. Menorca. Ibiza. Formentera. Cabrera. Dragonera.

General distribution (Phytogeography): Mediterranean

IUCN Category: LCLeast concern

Flowering time: JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Life-forms: Terophyte.

Habitats: Cultivated fields, path and road sides, disturbed zones. Therophytic calicole fields. Cultivated fields, path and road sides, disturbed zones.

Characteristics: An annual cycle herb which branches out from the base and which generally stretches its branches out along the ground. Like all the species of the Medicago genus it has trifoliate leaves, yellow flowers on leaf-stalks and the fruit curled in a spiral. We can distinguish it from Medicago littoralis, because the leaf-stalk of the flowers is shorter than the leaf and because the fruits have short, thick spines perpendicular to the spires; Medicago littoralis has thinner, straighter spines. It lives in clearings in the garrigues (Mediterranean woodland), along path-sides, moors. It flowers at the end of winter and in spring.