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Medicago arabica
Also called Spotted Medic, Spotted Bur Clover, Spotted Burr Clover, Spotted Leaf Medic, Spotted Bur Medick, Spotted Burclover, Southern Burr Clover
Spotted medick is a low, sprawling annual legume with spotted trifoliate leaves and pale yellow flowers, usually found on grassy places and clifftops. It is grown mainly as a nitrogen-fixing cover crop, and it can become a weed.
Medicago arabica, the spotted medick, spotted burclover, heart clover, is a flowering plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae.
It is native to the Mediterranean basin but is found throughout the world, usually on clifftop grasslands and grassy places. It forms a symbiotic relationship with the bacterium Sinorhizobium medicae, which is capable of nitrogen fixation.
Due to its nitrogen fixation, it is sometimes considered a useful cover crop to restore soil nutrients by farmers in its native range, though it is also weedy and can thus be a nuisance. It is edible both for livestock and humans, and attracts pollinators. It also has been used in traditional medicine for possible diuretic, expectorant, and anti-inflammatory properties.
Moon trefoil · Short Fruited Fenugreek · Creeping Rooted Medic · Medicago ciliaris · Globe Medick · Medicago coronata · Keg Medic · Sickle Medick · Hedgehog Medick · Disc Medic · Cutleaf medick · Water medick
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Medicago arabica by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
