Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Medicago laciniata

Leaves and burrs. Photographer Wikipedia (in Arabic), Sahara Desert

Burrs. Photographer Tracey Slotter, USDA, USA

Common name

Cut-leaved Medic

Family

Fabaceae

Where found

Woodland, mallee, grassy areas, and disturbed sites. Sydney area. Western Slopes. Occasionally elsewhere.

Notes

Introduced annual herb, prostrate or to 0.4 m tall.  Seed cases spiny. Stems sparsely hairy. Leaves alternating along the stems, compound, with three leaflets, each 0.3-1.5 cm long, 2-10 mm wide, upper surface hairless, sometimes with darker flecks, lower surface appressed-hairy, margins lobed, usually deeply cut as if insect-eaten, tips blunt, or notched with a broad straight point, stipules deeply incised, hairy on the lower surface. Flowers yellow to cream, pea-shaped, with five petals, two almost joined together. Standard petal 4.5–6 mm long. Flowers in clusters of 1-3 flowers. 

Medicago laciniata var. laciniata in Vic. (accessed 1 March 2021)

PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Medicago~laciniata (accessed 1 March 2021)