AusTraits

Medicago laciniata

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Fabaceae

Taxonomy: Medicago laciniata (L.) Mill.

Synonyms: 3 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Medicago laciniata (L.) Mill. var. laciniata (nomenclatural synonym)
  • Medicago laciniata var. brachyacantha Boiss. (taxonomic synonym)
  • Medicago polymorpha var. laciniata L. (nomenclatural synonym)

Distribution (APC): WA (naturalised), SA (naturalised), Qld (naturalised), NSW (naturalised), Vic (naturalised)

Profiles: APC, Flora of Australia, ALA, iNaturalist, NSW Flora, SA eFlora, Vic Flora, Florabase, ATRP

Traits

Top source datasets: Leishman_1992 (7), Munroe_2019 (1), NHNSW_2014_2 (2), NHNSW_2022 (4), NHNSW_2023 (15), RBGV_2022 (4), RBGV_2023 (18), SAH_2022 (3), SAH_2023 (12), Stephens_2021 (3), WAH_2022_2 (7), WAH_2023_2 (2), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 27 traits from 81 records in 14 datasets.

Traits by category (click to expand). For categorical traits, the values are listed. For numerical traits, the mean and range are shown.

flower morphology
  • flower_colour (categorical): yellow_orange (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
fruit morphology
  • fruit_length (numerical): 5.75 mm (3-8 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
  • fruit_width (numerical): 4.67 mm (3-6 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • fruit_height (numerical): 5 mm (3-6 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
  • fruit_type (categorical): legume (2); legume_indehiscent (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (1) [sources: RBGV_2023]
  • fruit_colour (categorical): brown (1); grey (1); yellow (1) [sources: SAH_2023]
leaf morphology
  • leaf_area (numerical): 15 mm2 (15-15 mm2) [sources: Leishman_1992]
  • leaf_length (numerical): 9.5 mm (3-15 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • leaf_width (numerical): 5.5 mm (2-10 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
  • leaf_shape (categorical): obcordate (2); obovate (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
  • leaf_margin (categorical): toothed (1); toothed_dentate (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023; SAH_2023]
  • leaf_compoundness (categorical): compound (3) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): alternate (2) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; RBGV_2023]
  • plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (3) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
life history
  • photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (1) [sources: Munroe_2019]
  • plant_growth_form (categorical): herb (7) [sources: Leishman_1992; NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • life_history (categorical): annual (7) [sources: Leishman_1992; NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
  • woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (6) [sources: NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • stem_growth_habit (categorical): decumbent (3); prostrate (3) [sources: NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; WAH_2022_2]
  • flowering_time (categorical): nnnnnnnyyynn (1); nnnnnnyyyyyn (1); nnnnnynnnnnn (1) [sources: Stephens_2021]
  • storage_organ (categorical): no_storage_organ (1) [sources: Leishman_1992]
seed morphology
  • seed_dry_mass (numerical): 2.02 mg (2.02-2.02 mg) [sources: Leishman_1992]
  • seed_length (numerical): 2.75 mm (2-3 mm) [sources: RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • seed_shape (categorical): reniform (2) [sources: RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
whole plant morphology
  • plant_height (numerical): 0.28 m (0.05-0.4 m) [sources: Leishman_1992; WAH_2023_2]

Sources

dataset_idn_traitsn_recordsreference
RBGV_20231318VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/.
NHNSW_20231015N. H. of New South Wales. The Plant Information Network System of The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Version 2.0.. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
SAH_2023912S. H. of South Australia. eFlora of SA, Electronic Flora of South Australia. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.flora.sa.gov.au/.
Leishman_199277M. R. Leishman and M. Westoby. “Classifying plants into groups on the basis of associations of individual traits-Evidence from Australian semi-arid woodlands”. Journal of Ecology 80 (1992), pp. 417-424. doi: 10.2307/2260687.
WAH_2022_247Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
NHNSW_202244N. H. of New South Wales. The Plant Information Network System of The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Version 2.0.. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
RBGV_202244VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/.
SAH_202233S. H. of South Australia. eFlora of SA, Electronic Flora of South Australia. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.flora.sa.gov.au/.
Stephens_202113R. Stephens. “Unpublished data: Flowering time data from TERN plots, Macquarie University.”. 2021.
NHNSW_2014_222Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
WAH_2023_212Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Wenk_202222E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
Munroe_201911S. E. M. Munroe, F. A. McInerney, J. Andrae, N. Welti, G. R. Guerin, E. Leitch, T. Hall, S. Szarvas, R. Atkins, S. Caddy-Retalic, and B. Sparrow. “The Photosynthetic Pathways of Plant Species Surveyed in Australia's National Terrestrial Monitoring Network”. Scientific Data 8 (2021), p. 97. doi: 10.1038/s41597-021-00877-z.
Wenk_202311E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.