Burclover

Medicago polymorpha

Family · Fabaceae · Harmless

The commonest legume of lawns, verges and yards across the Peninsula, with clover leaflets and spiral fruits that stick to everything. It is on almost every dirt path in the country.

Where it grows

Fields and pasture · Town and roadside · Roadsides and waste ground · Dunes and sand

Also known as

toothed medick, California burclover

In flower

How to tell it

Leaves of three inverted-heart leaflets, often with a dark blotch in the middle. Small yellow flowers in groups of two to eight. The fruit is the mark: a flat coil of three to six turns, covered in curved spines that catch on clothes and on dogs' coats.

What it is confused with

No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.

What it is for

It is among the best spontaneous forages of the Mediterranean and was deliberately taken to Australia and California for that reason. It fixes nitrogen in the soil, and a field full of it is a field recovering.

Sources

Flora-On