Burclover
Medicago polymorpha
Family · Fabaceae · Harmless
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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.
Fields and pasture · Town and roadside · Roadsides and waste ground · Dunes and sand
Also known astoothed medick, California burclover
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.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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