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Medicago polymorpha

Common name:	Toothed Bur-Clover	Family:	Leguminosae
Author:	L.	Botanical references:	17, 200
Synonyms:	Medicago hispida (Gaertn.), Medicago denticulata (Willd.)
Known Hazards:	None known
Range:	Central and southern Europe, including Britain, south and east to N. Africa and Asia.
Habitat:	Sandy or gravelly soils near the sea in eastern and southern England[17].
Edibility Rating (1-5):	2	Medicinal Rating (1-5):	0

Other Possible Synonyms:	From various places across the web, may not be correct. See below.
	M. apiculata[B] M. denticulata var. vulgaris[G] M. gracillima[G] M. hispida var. apiculata[B,P] M. hispida var. confinis[B,P] M. hispida var. denticulata[G] M. hispida var. gracillima[G] M. polycarpa[G,P] M. polymorpha var. brevispina[B,P] M. polymorpha var. ciliaris[B,P] M. polymorpha var. polygyra[B,P] M. polymorpha var. tricycla[B,P] M. polymorpha var. vulgaris[B,G,P]
Other Common Names:	From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below.
	Bur Clover [L], Burclover [P], California Burclover [L], Hairy Medick [L], Ruige Rupsklaver [D], Toothed Medick [B],
Epithets:	From a Dictionary of Botanical Epithets
	medica = medicinal polymorpha = taking many forms
Systematics:	From a USDA Plants Database
	Order: Fabales. Renamed to Fabaceae -- Pea family
Noxious, Invasive and Injurious Weeds	From USDA PLANTS database, Weeds Australia , DEFRA Injurious Weeds
	Listed as noxious/invasive for: Arizona.

Physical Characteristics

Annual growing to 0.6m. It is not frost tender. It is in flower from May to August, and the seeds ripen from July to September. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs). The plant is self-fertile. It can fix Nitrogen. We rate it 2/5 for edibility and 0/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy) and medium (loamy) soils and requires well-drained soil. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It requires dry or moist soil.

Habitats and Possible Locations

Cultivated Beds.

Edible Uses

Flowers Leaves Seed.

Leaves and young shoots - raw or cooked as a potherb[2, 179, 183]. Only the young leaves are eaten raw[177]. Plants can be harvested on a cut and come again basis, the first harvest can be made about one month after sowing, plants can then be harvested another 3 - 4 times at intervals of a few weeks[206]. The young leaves contain about 6% protein, 0.14% fat, 9.5% carbohydrate, 1.4% ash. They are rich in vitamins A, C, and E[179].
Flowers - raw or cooked[105, 183].
Seed - cooked[257]. The seed can be parched, ground into a powder and mixed with water to make a mush[257].

Medicinal Uses

Disclaimer

None known

Other Uses

Green manure.

Used as a green manure, it fixes atmospheric nitrogen[46, 206].

Cultivation details

Prefers a dry neutral soil and dislikes shade. Prefers a light well-drained soil[206].
A very variable plant[17].
Cultivated for its edible leaves in China[206].
This species has a symbiotic relationship with certain soil bacteria, these bacteria form nodules on the roots and fix atmospheric nitrogen. Some of this nitrogen is utilized by the growing plant but some can also be used by other plants growing nearby[200]. When removing plant remains at the end of the growing season, it is best to only remove the aerial parts of the plant, leaving the roots in the ground to decay and release their nitrogen.

Propagation

Pre-soak the seed for 12 hours in warm water and then sow in spring in situ[206]. The seed can also be sown in situ in the autumn[206].

Suppliers

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

Web References

[V] Images from the Vascular Plant Image Gallery of the Texas A& M Bioinformatics Working Group.
[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.
[C] Taxon data. from the CalFlora database.
Images from the CalPhoto database.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.
[HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database

References for Medicago polymorpha var. vulgaris (a possible synonym).

[G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[2] Hedrick. U. P. Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. Dover Publications 1972 ISBN 0-486-20459-6
Lots of entries, quite a lot of information in most entries and references.

[17] Clapham, Tootin and Warburg. Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press 1962
A very comprehensive flora, the standard reference book but it has no pictures.

[46] Uphof. J. C. Th. Dictionary of Economic Plants. Weinheim 1959
An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.

[105] Tanaka. T. Tanaka's Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World. Keigaku Publishing 1976
The most comprehensive guide to edible plants I've come across. Only the briefest entry for each species, though, and some of the entries are more than a little dubious. Not for the casual reader.

[177] Kunkel. G. Plants for Human Consumption. Koeltz Scientific Books 1984 ISBN 3874292169
An excellent book for the dedicated. A comprehensive listing of latin names with a brief list of edible parts.

[179] Reid. B. E. Famine Foods of the Chiu-Huang Pen-ts'ao. Taipei. Southern Materials Centre 1977
A translation of an ancient Chinese book on edible wild foods. Fascinating.

[183] Facciola. S. Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications 1990 ISBN 0-9628087-0-9
Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world.

[200] Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5
Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.

[206] Larkcom J. Oriental Vegetables John Murray 1991 ISBN 0-7195-4781-4
Well written and very informative.

[257] Moerman. D. Native American Ethnobotany Timber Press. Oregon. 1998 ISBN 0-88192-453-9
Very comprehensive but terse guide to the native uses of plants. Excellent bibliography, fully referenced to each plant, giving a pathway to further information. Not for the casual reader.

Readers Comments

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Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future - Species Database. Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
WEB search engine by Rich Morris - Home Page- Contact Info
Blagdon Cross, Ashwater, Beaworthy, Devon, EX21 5DF, UK.
Website: www.pfaf.org Phone: 0845 458 4719/_44(0) 1208 872963

This page (UK) http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/cgi-bin/pfaf/arr_html?Medicago+polymorpha
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