Small clover-like plant for ID

davidbr · #1 (**permalink**) 21-04-2009, 01:09 PM

Hopefully someone can give me an opinion on this one, a small, yellow-flowered clover or medick-type plant growing on sandy soil along Weston-super-Mare seafront.

(flowers)

(seeds)

Many thanks

Gill Catton · #2 (**permalink**) 21-04-2009, 01:15 PM

This is very similar to a plant that I had last year which turned out to be slender trefoil Trifolium micranthum There's no description in my book though of those rather distinctive looking fruits

treecreeper · #3 (**permalink**) 21-04-2009, 01:23 PM

The coiled fruit is characteristic of Medicago, not Trifolium. The combination of the double row of spines on the fruit and the absence of down on the leaflets points to toothed medick, Medicago polymorpha

TC

Gill Catton · #4 (**permalink**) 21-04-2009, 01:42 PM

flippin Medicago - always trip me up!

KeenTeen17 · #5 (**permalink**) 21-04-2009, 04:42 PM

I'll agree with toothed medick. It looks right when looking at other photos. I'll have to check all my local ones because I usually just dismiss them as black medick

davidbr · #6 (**permalink**) 21-04-2009, 05:32 PM

Thanks, everyone; Toothed Medick was what I was thinking of, but it's a plant I'd never seen before so I really wasn't sure.

I've been doing a bit of reading online and apparently Medicago polymorpha is known from parts of the Somerset coast further south, down towards the Devon border; the habitat's right and the sandy soil at Weston-super-Mare seems good for these small spring flowers (there's loads of Early Forget-me-not, Myosotis ramosissima, for starters