Ontario Weeds: Black medick
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Excerpt from Publication 505, Ontario Weeds, Order this publication
Table of Contents
Name: Black medick, Medicago lupulina
L.,
Other Names: Lupuline, Yellow-clover,
luzerne lupuline, minette
Family: Legume or Bean Family (Leguminosae)
General Description: Annual, reproducing
only by seed. It is distinguished by its compound leaves having
3 oval leaflets, all with shallow teeth towards their tips but only
the central one with a definite stalk; the small, nearly spherical
clusters of yellow flowers on stalks usually longer than the leaves;
and the small clusters of black coiled seedpods produced from those
flower heads.

Black medick. A. Plant.
Flowers & Fruit: Flowers individually very small but grouped in dense head-like clusters, about 1 cm (2/5 in.) in diameter, on long stalks from leaf axils; each flower very small, yellow, similar in form to pea or bean flowers; seedpods black (hence the common name), slightly coiled, prominently ridged and hairy or smooth. Flowers from early spring to late autumn, dropping its seed during most of that time.
Habitat: Black medick occurs throughout Ontario in most soil textures. A particularly common weed in lawns, it also grows in gardens, waste places, roadsides, pastures and sometimes in cultivated fields.
Related Links
... on general Weed
topics
... on weed identification, order OMAFRA
Publication 505: Ontario Weeds
... on weed control, order OMAFRA
Publication 75: Guide To Weed Control
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