Scientific name: Medicago lupulina L.
Common name: Black Medick
Description
Habit: An annual or short-lived perennial.
Stems: Scrambling, semi-erect, to 80 cm long.
Leaves: Alternate, with shallowly toothed stipules, pinnate, with 3 leaflets, the middle one stalked; leaflets round, oval or triangular; toothed, 8-15 mm long.
Flowers: Yellow, zygomorphic, hermaphrodite, 2-3 mm across, in groups of 5-10 in compact and short racemes; calyx of 5 sepals fused into a tube; petals 5, 2 forming free wings, 2 are fused to form a lower keel and 1 conceals the stamens and carpel; stamens 10, 9 fused to form a tube, the 10th free; carpel 1, style 1.
Fruits: A legume pod, coiled to form nearly complete circle, flattened, hairless, black at maturity, 2 mm across, containing a single seed.
Habitat: Roadsides, pastures, sand-dunes, sea-cliffs.
Distribution: Abundant on limestone, very rare elsewhere.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No