Dicotyledon | Literature for Medicago sativa
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999. |
Fabaceae -- The Pea Family | Bibliography |
Medicago sativa | |
Common name(s): `alapapa, alfalfa, lucerne |
General Information | ||
---|---|---|
Distribution | Native to Europe, cultivated as a fodder plant and widely naturalized.In the Hawaiian Islands, naturalized on Midway, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i. | |
Habit |
Erect perennial herbs, with a deep taproot and a short-branched superficial caudex; stems 3-10 dm long, sometimes with decumbent branches, pubescent to glabrous. |
|
Leaves |
Leaflets narrowly obovate to linear-elliptic, (8-)15-35 mm long, (3-)5-15 mm wide, pubescent, stipules narrowly ovate to linear, apex of stipules dentate. |
|
Flowers |
Flowers 5-40 in racemes; corolla violet purple, (5-)6-11 mm long. |
|
Fruit |
Pods curved or spirally twisted in 1-1.5(-3) complete turns, 4-7 mm in diameter, transverse veins forming a distinct but not very prominent transverse or radially elongated network, prickles absent. |
|
Seeds |
Seeds several. |
|
Chromosomes |
2n = 16, 32, 48, 64 |
|