Medicago lupulina

Hop clover ( Medicago lupulina )

Called The hop clover ( Medicago lupulina ), including hop - alfalfa, Zetterklee or yellow clover, belongs to the genus alfalfa (Medicago ). The hop clover is rarely cultivated as a forage plant and used as wild vegetables.

Description

The one or two perennial herbaceous plant reaches heights of growth of about 10 to 50 centimeters. The angular stems are decumbent to ascending. The leaflets are obovate, finely toothed and often emarginate at the tip of a continuation of the midrib (Medicago - tooth). The stipules are lanceolate pointed.

The small, spherical, racemose inflorescences are 10 to 50 - flowered and recall the of hops. The flowers are 2-5 mm long. The sleeves are almost kidney-shaped and once wound ( alfalfa ). The fruit is brown black last. Bloom time is from May to October.

The species is similar ( Trifolium dubium ) in habit the thread Clover, in which the cup but is bald.

Ecology

The hop clover can be detected since the Bronze Age in Southern Germany.

The hop clover is a Therophyt or a Hemikryptophyt with a long spindle-shaped root and a pioneer plant. The leaves are evergreen.

The flowers are nectar- leading butterfly flowers with explosion mechanism, thereby fast the stamens at the first insects visit from the boat out and push the insect to the abdomen.

Pollination is by the honey bee and other small bee species and by various Diptera; after the insects visit stands out the gender column of the small boat; Self-pollination is possible, but leads to reduced fruit set.

The spread of fruit ( one-seeded nuts ) by the water ( Regenschwemmling ) and by the people.

Vegetative propagation is done by adventitious shoot regeneration by which can also be formed at the roots.

Variability of the species

Medicago lupulina is highly variable depending on the location, fertilization, mowing and grazing. But probably only a few of the varieties and varieties many described is entitled to a systematic value. On moist, fertilized soil leaves and flower stalks are much larger, in open, dry growing sites, the stems can be very long and tough, yes, almost like a mandrel.

As one of the varieties of Medicago lupulina was glandulosa var Mertens et Koch mentioned. This is characterized by a glandular pubescence of the fruit, or the whole plant. Often it is even more hairy silky. In Germany, this variety is probably only in the warm lowlands, namely the Upper Rhine, Neckar area and the Swiss franc. Outside Germany it was also observed in the Southern Alps.

Occurrence

This species is found throughout Eurasia, especially in the central and southern regions. In Austria it is found very frequently and in all federal states. By seed contamination, botanically referred to as Speirochorie, it is common today almost worldwide. It belongs therefore in individual regions of the so-called neophytes.

You can find the hop clover used in lime - poor grassland ( semi-dry grasslands ), fat in dry meadows, in fields, and along roads, dams and Erdanrissen. He prefers summer warm, moderately dry, calcareous loamy soil.

After Ellenberg he is a half- light plant, a default heat pointer, and a Verbandscharakterart subozeanischer semi-dry grasslands ( Mesobromion ).

Use

The hop clover is usually grown as a forage crop in clover and grass mixtures.