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Medicago lupulina
Also called Hop clover, Nonesuch, Black Medic, Hop Medic, Yellow Trefoil, English Trefoil, Hop Trefoil
Black medick is a low, annual or short-lived perennial legume of dry grassland and disturbed ground, with small yellow flower clusters. It grows easily in poor, well-drained soil because its roots fix nitrogen.
Medicago lupulina, commonly known as black medick, nonesuch, or hop clover, is a plant of dry grassland belonging to Fabaceae, the legume or clover family. It is native to Africa and Eurasia, and has been naturalized elsewhere.
A native of the Old World, the species is found throughout Europe, north Africa, the Near East, and most of Asia, including India, China, and Korea. It is naturalized in central Asia, Japan, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, and much of South America. It is found throughout the US, including Hawaii and Alaska.
Black medick is a good source of nectar for bees to use to make honey. It may be planted in order to create artificial meadows, especially on dry land. The presence of the species in large concentrations as a lawn weed may indicate that the soil is poor in nitrogen. However, because it and other clovers fix nitrogen in the soil, this deficiency can improve over time due to the presence of these plants.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Medicago lupulina 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.
