Medicago lupulina

Black medick

Family: Fabaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Black medick is a naturalized annual found in California's Foothill Woodlands, Great Basin, and Panamint Mountains in disturbed and agricultural areas, forest, and mountain habitats at elevations up to 2,500 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces small yellow flowers in compact clusters of 10 to 20 blooms. Growing with prostrate to ascending stems 10 to 40 centimeters long that are distinctly angled and hairy, it spreads low across the ground. Its leaves have three obovate to oblong leaflets typically 1 to 1.5 centimeters long, with entire or slightly toothed stipules. The small black, kidney-shaped fruits are 2 to 2.5 millimeters long with prominent concentric veins.

Habitat: Disturbed and agricultural areas, forest, mountains

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: < 2500 m

Bioregions: CA-FP, GB, DMtns (Panamint Range)

California counties: San Bernardino, El Dorado, San Francisco, Butte, Calaveras, Kern, Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, Imperial, Orange, Siskiyou, Inyo, Monterey, Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake, Santa Clara, Lassen, Fresno, Plumas, Ventura, Glenn, Tehama, San Mateo, Trinity, Placer, Nevada, Mono, Modoc, Marin, Shasta, Sacramento, Contra Costa, Alameda, Yuba, Colusa, San Luis Obispo, Napa, Humboldt, Del Norte, Mariposa, Tuolumne, Amador, Madera, Tulare, Santa Barbara, Alpine, Sierra, Stanislaus, San Benito, Yolo, Santa Cruz

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.