236 LEGUMINOSAE (PULSE FAMILY) 



Time of bloom: May to July. 

 Seed-time: July to September. 

 Range: Nova Scotia and Ontario to Florida and Texas. Also on 



the Pacific coast and in Arizona. 

 Habitat : Cultivated crops, grain fields, meadows, waste lands. 



This plant is often cultivated in the South and West for a cover 

 crop and green manure, and also for winter forage. These pur- 

 poses it serves very well, particularly if it is used while young, 

 before the approach of the fruiting season causes the stems 

 to become woody and innutritious ; but its hooked burs 

 greatly damage the fleeces of sheep, and the 

 long vitality of its dormant seeds causes the 

 plant to retain possession of the ground 

 when it is desired for other crops. (Fig. 

 168.) 



Stems six inches to two feet long, branched 

 at the base, some prostrate and some 

 ascending, spreading in all directions. 

 Leaves smooth, with obovate or broadly 

 wedge-shaped leaflets, rounded and finely 

 toothed at the tips ; petioles slender and 

 variable in length, with toothed stipules. 

 Heads one- to three-flowered, on peduncles 

 shorter than the leaves, the corollas bright 

 yellow and about a quarter-inch long. 

 Pods several-seeded, twisted in a loose 

 spiral of two or three coils, strongly net- 

 veined, flattened, with thin keeled edge 

 bordered with a double row of hooked 

 spines. 



Means of control 



FIG. 168. Bur Clo- Burn over the ground where plants have 

 ver^Medicago hispida). matured seedg j n order to degtroy the burg 



on the surface before plowing for other 

 crops, which should be such as will require very thorough tillage. 

 Seed the ground with other and better clovers that will supersede 

 this one. 



