Pea Family - Medicks

Pea Family - Medicks, Melilots & Allies

Pea Family - Fabaceae

Identification

These are all members of the pea family with trifoliate leaves. This page includes the trefoils, melilots and medicks. Other members of the family with trifoliate leaves, including the bird's-foot-trefoils and some of the restharrows as well as a few other species can all be found on a separate page by clicking here.

Italian Melilot Melilotus italicus

Native to the Mediterranean Region.


Flower spike	Leaf	Seed pods	Seed pod

Sicilian Melilot Melilotus siculus

Native to the Mediterranean Region.


Habit	Flowers	Flowers	Flowers

Leaf	Seed capsules

Balansa's Fenugreek Trigonella balansae

Native to Greece and Turkey.


Habit	Habit	Habit	Flowers

Leaf	Seed pods

Greek Fenugreek Trigonella graeca

Native to South-western Greece and Crete.


Habit	Habit	Flowers	Flowers

Leaf	Leaf	Seed pods	Seed pods

Trigonella rotundifolia

Native to Greece and the Aegean Islands.


Habit	Flowers	Flowers	Leaf

Tree Medick Medicago arborea

Native to the Mediterranean regions of Europe and Turkey but also introduced as an ornamental elsewhere.


Habit	Habit	Flowers	Flowers

Leaf	Leaf	Seed pods

Black Medick Medicago lupulina

Native throughout Europe and North Africa to Central and southern Asia and China.


Habit	Flowers	Flowers	Fruiting head

Leaf

Button Medick Medicago orbicularis

Native from Macaronesia through the Mediterranean region to Black Sea coasts. Common on sandy beaches.


Flower	Flower	Leaf

Seed pods	Seed pod	Seed pod

Rugose Medick Medicago rugosa

Native to North African coastal regions and in the European Mediterranean region from Corsica and Sardinia eastwards to the Middle East. Seed pods glandular hairy.


Flower	Flower	Leaf	Leaf stipule

Seed pods	Seed pods	Seed pods

Sea Medick Medicago marina

Native from Macaronesia through the Mediterranean region to Black Sea coasts. Common on sandy beaches.


Habit	Habit	Flowers	Flowers

Flowers	Leaves	Seed pods	Seed pods

Strong-spined Medick Medicago truncatula

Native from Macaronesia, through the Mediterranean region to the Middle East. Pedicels aristate.


Habit	Flowers	Leaf	Leaf

Leaf stipule	Seed pod	Seed pod	Seed pod

Shore Medick Medicago littoralis

Native from Macaronesia through the Mediterranean region to Black Sea coasts.


Habit	Flowers	Leaves	Leaf

Seed pods	Seed pods	Seed pods	Seed pods

Spotted Medick Medicago arabica

Native from the Canary Islands, through much of Europe and the Mediterranean Basin to the Caucasus.


Habit	Flowers	Flowers	Leaf

Leaf	Leaf stipule	Seed pod	Seed pod

Toothed Medick Medicago polymorpha

Native throughout much of Europe and the Mediterranean Basin, eastward to Central Asia.


Flowers	Fruits	Leaf	Leaf stipule

Medicago disciformis

Native to the Mediterranean region. Note the seed pod spines whih are distinctly arched backwards.


Habit	Flower	Leaf

Leaf stipule	seed pod	Seed pod	Seed pod

Bur Medick Medicago minima

Native throughout most of Europe and the Mediterranean Basin, eastwards to India and China.


Habit	Habit	Flowers


Fruit	Fruit	Leaf

Rigid Medick Medicago rigidula

Native through the Mediterranean region to the Caucasus and western Asia. Seed pods glandular hairy.


Flower	Flower	Leaf	Leaf stipule

Seed pod	Seed pod

Hop Trefoil Trifolium campestre

Native throughout Europe, the Mediterranean Basin and western Asia. Widely introduced as a nitrogen-fixer and fodder plant elsewhere.


Habit	Flowers/fruits	Flowers/fruits	Leaf

Orange Trefoil Trifolium aurantiacum

Native from Albania to Crete. Abundant in grassy places and roadsides in Peloponnese.


Habit	Flowers	Flowers	Leaf

Flora of Peloponnese An Identification Guide