Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Fabales > Fabaceae > Medicago > Medicago arborea

Medicago arborea (moon trefoil; Shrub Medick; Tree Medick)

Synonyms: Medica arborea (homotypic); Medicago arborea var. citrina; Rhodusia arborea (homotypic); Trigonella arborea (homotypic)

Wikipedia Abstract

Medicago arborea is a plant species of the genus Medicago. Common names include moon trefoil, shrub medick, alfalfa arborea, and tree medick. It is found throughout Europe and especially in the Mediterranean basin, primarily on rocky shores among shrubby vegetation. It forms a symbiotic relationship with the bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti, which is capable of nitrogen fixation. It is the only member of the genus Medicago which is used as an ornamental. M. arborea is sometimes misidentified as Cytisus, which it resembles.
View Wikipedia Record: Medicago arborea

Infraspecies

Attributes

Edible [1]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [1]  Hermaphrodite
Leaf Type [1]  Evergreen
Scent [1]  The flowers have a vanilla or sweet pea scent;
Structure [1]  Shrub
Height [1]  6.56 feet (2 m)
Width [1]  6.56 feet (2 m)
View Plants For A Future Record : Medicago arborea

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Illes Columbretes 30409 Spain      
Illots de Ponent 6269 Spain  
Parco Del Somma-Vesuvio e Miglio D'Oro National Park II 33648 Italy
Sa Dragonera 3144 Spain    
Severn Estuary/ Môr Hafren 182155 England/Wales, United Kingdom

Predators

Providers

Pollinated by 
Calliphora vicina (Blue bottlefly)[2]
Eristalis tenax (drone fly)[2]
Eupeodes corollae[2]
Lucilia sericata (Green blowfly)[2]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
1Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
2The reproductive ecology of Medicago citrina (Font Quer) Greuter (Leguminosae): a bee-pollinated plant in Mediterranean islands where bees are absent, C. Pérez-Bañón, A. Juan, T. Petanidou, Ma A. Marcos-García and M. B. Crespo, Plant Systematics and Evolution Volume 241, Numbers 1-2, 29-46 (2003)
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0