Scientific name: Medicago sativa L.
Common name: Lucerne, Sickle Medick
Description
Habit: A hairless or slightly hairy perennial, to 90 cm high.
Stems: Scrambling, semi-erect.
Leaves: Alternate, with untoothed or shallowly stipules, 8-30 mm long, pinnate, with 3 oblong leaflets, the middle one stalked.
Flowers: Purple, zygomorphic, hermaphrodite, 5-12 mm across, numerous flowers in compact and erect 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, curved or coiled to form 2-3 circles.
Habitat: Pastures, meadows.
Distribution: Aran Islands, mostly in small quantity but abundant in some parts.
Native status: Not native; introduced to Aran Islands into cultivation between 1869-1890.
Of conservation interest: No
The subspecies found in the region is Medicago sativa subsp. sativa.