Black Medick - Medicago lupulina

Black Medick
Medicago lupulina L.
Other names: Hop Clover, Yellow Trefoil

Family: Fabaceae, Pea
Genus: Medicago

Description
Plant length: 10-40 cm long.
Growth habit: creeping to ascending annual or biennial.
Stems: much branched at base, 4-angled, almost hairless
or with fine, flat, hairs.
Leaves: alternate, divided into 3 leaflets, elliptic to
obovate, 5-20 mm long, almost hairless to finely flat- short-
hairy. End leaflet stalked. Stipules narrowly lance-shaped,
entire to shallowly small-toothed.
Flowers: yellow, 2-3 mm long, 10-40 in short, rounded,
stalked clusters, 5-10 mm long, from upper leaf axils.
Calyx nearly as long as the corolla.
Flowering time: May-August.
Fruits: pods 1-seeded, 2-3 mm long, heavily net-veined,
not prickled, hairless to softly hairy, turning black at
maturity, kidney-shaped in outline and curved to not quite
one spiral, the style curved into a second spiral.

Distribution
On disturbed ground and sandy or gravelly soil in most of
MT except in some n. areas. Introduced from Europe and
found throughout most of the U.S.

Edible and Medicinal plant: see below.

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Contents
Identification
English Names Index
Scientific Names Index
Family Index

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Edible Uses:
The leaves of black medick are edible cooked and can be used as a potherb. The seeds can be cooked, then parched and eaten or ground into a powder. The seed is said to contain trypsin inhibitors. These can interfere with certain enzymes that help in the digestion of proteins, but are normally destroyed if the seed is sprouted first.

Medicinal Uses:
Aqueous extracts of the plant have antibacterial properties against micro-organisms. The plant has agents that are capable of easing pain or discomfort.