Medicago glomerata Balb.
Erect or ascending, perennial herb; stems moderately to densely clothed in appressed hairs above, almost glabrous or sparsely hairy below. Lvs moderately to densely hairy on petioles and undersurface of leaflets, glabrous above; petioles 2-20 mm long; leaflets narrowly obovate to elliptic, obtuse and mucronate, cuneate to obtuse at base, irregularly serrate near apex, uniform in colour, 6-15-(20) mm long; terminal petiolule 2-5 mm long; lateral petiolules up to 1 mm long; stipules broadly ovate to lanceolate, acuminate, entire or irregularly serrate. Infl. with (6)-8-numerous fls; peduncles moderately to densely hairy, > petioles; pedicel < or ± = calyx tube. Calyx moderately hairy; calyx teeth triangular, acuminate, ± = tube. Corolla yellow, 6-10 mm long. Pod moderately hairy, coiled in 11/2-3 turns with a hole through the centre, veined but not spiny, 3-5 mm diam., many-seeded; seed yellow-green to brownish, 2-2.5 mm long.
S.: known certainly from one recent collection, sandy soil on roadside, Bottle Lake, Christchurch.
S. Europe, N. Africa 1957
Some yellow-flowered specimens with coiled pods match European material of M. glomerata, a sp. closely related to M. sativa and M. falcata L. These specimens were initially recorded by Healy, A. J., Trans. Roy. Soc. N.Z. 84: 655 (1957), as M. falcata but the plants do not have the falcate pods which characterise that sp. M. falcata and M. glomerata are often treated as subsp. falcata (L.) Arcangeli, and subsp. glomerata (Balbis) Tutin of M. sativa.
