Plant · P-088

Black Medick

Medicago lupulina

Black Medick is a low, sprawling nitrogen-fixing clover relative that forms a mowable mat through fall, winter and spring before dying back in summer heat and re-seeding itself from a hard, long-lived seed bank. Sheep graze it as a protein-rich forage close to alfalfa, and its leaves, seed and flowers see traditional use as food and folk medicine once cooked or sprouted to remove trypsin inhibitors. It needs full sun and cannot grow in shade, and it produces best on light, fertile, well-drained ground rather than heavy or waterlogged soil. Its seed carries compounds that can affect breeding females and monogastric animals in quantity, so pure stands are worth managing with that in mind.