LEGUMINOSAE (PULSE FAMILY) 235 
Time of bloom: March to December. 
Seed-time: May until snow-covered. 
Range: Throughout the world in all temperate regions. 
Habitat: Fields, meadows, waste places. 
Properly speaking, this plant cannot be called a weed, further 
than that it is much less valuable for hay and forage than its larger 
relatives. Also the hulled seeds, though a trifle smaller, bear a 
strong resemblance to those of its tall perennial sister, the Alfalfa 
(Medicago sativa, L.), and unscrupulous dealers 
use them to adulterate the expensive Alfalfa 
seed. Grazing animals eat the plant readily 
and it makes good pasture. (Fig. 167.) 
Stems slender, softly hairy, one to two feet 
long, procumbent, branching at the base and 
spreading on all sides, with many shorter 
branches which are usually ascending. Leaves 
pinnately three-foliolate, also finely hairy, with 
rather long petioles, the leaflets obovate, 
rounded and slightly toothed at the tips, 
seldom more than a half-inch inlength. Flowers 
only about one line long, bright yellow, in small, 
oblong, dense heads or spikes about a quarter- 
inch thick and usually about twice as long. 
Pods thin-skinned, kidney-shaped, net-veined 
and ridged, slightly twisted, containing one seed, 
black when ripe. 
Fig. 167.— Black 
Medick (Medi 
Means of control a, ya 
Cultivation of the land and reseeding heavily with larger and 
more valuable members of the Clover Family, which will crowd 
out any renewal of the Medick from dormant seed. 
BUR CLOVER 
Medicago hispida, Gaertn. 
(Medicago denticulata, Willd.) 
Other English names: Toothed Medick, Winter Medick. 
Introduced. Annual or biennial. Propagates by seeds. 
