AusTraits

Medicago minima

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Fabaceae

Taxonomy: Medicago minima (L.) L. ex Bartal.

Synonyms: 4 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Medicago minima (L.) L. ex Bartal. var. minima (nomenclatural synonym)
  • Medicago minima var. brachyodon Rchb. (taxonomic synonym)
  • Medicago minima var. brevispina Benth. (taxonomic synonym)
  • Medicago polymorpha var. minima L. (nomenclatural synonym)

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

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

Traits

Top source datasets: Dwyer_2017 (11), Leishman_1992 (5), Munroe_2019 (1), NHNSW_2014_2 (2), NHNSW_2022 (4), NHNSW_2023 (15), NSWFRD_2014 (2), RBGV_2022 (4), RBGV_2023 (19), SAH_2022 (3), SAH_2023 (15), Standish_2019 (6), Stephens_2021 (4), WAH_2022_2 (4), WAH_2023_2 (1), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), Wright_2000 (5). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 36 traits from 104 records in 18 datasets.

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

fire response
flower morphology
  • flower_colour (categorical): yellow_orange (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
fruit morphology
  • fruit_length (numerical): 3.62 mm (2-5 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
  • fruit_width (numerical): 4.17 mm (3-6 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • fruit_height (numerical): 4.17 mm (3-6 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_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) [sources: SAH_2023]
leaf morphology
  • leaf_area (numerical): 20 mm2 (20-20 mm2) [sources: Leishman_1992]
  • leaf_length (numerical): 9.5 mm (3-15 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • leaf_width (numerical): 5.92 mm (2-10 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • leaf_mass_per_area (numerical): 31.3 g/m2 (28.15-35.55 g/m2) [sources: Dwyer_2017]
  • leaf_shape (categorical): obcordate (1); obovate (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
  • leaf_margin (categorical): toothed (1); toothed_dentate (2) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_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 (8) [sources: Leishman_1992; NHNSW_2022; NSWFRD_2014; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; Standish_2019; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • life_history (categorical): annual (7) [sources: Leishman_1992; NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; Standish_2019; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
  • woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (5) [sources: NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • stem_growth_habit (categorical): decumbent (2); prostrate (3) [sources: NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; WAH_2022_2]
  • nitrogen_fixing (categorical): nitrogen_fixer (1) [sources: Standish_2019]
  • root_structure (categorical): arbuscular_mycorrhizal (1) [sources: Standish_2019]
  • flowering_time (categorical): nnnnnnyyynnn (1); nnnnnynyyynn (1); ynnnnnyyyyyy (2) [sources: Stephens_2021]
  • seedbank_location (categorical): soil_seedbank (1) [sources: Standish_2019]
  • storage_organ (categorical): no_storage_organ (1) [sources: Leishman_1992]
seed morphology
  • seed_dry_mass (numerical): 1.06 mg (1.06-1.06 mg) [sources: Dwyer_2017]
  • seed_length (numerical): 2.25 mm (2-2.5 mm) [sources: RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • seed_shape (categorical): reniform (2) [sources: RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
whole plant morphology
  • plant_height (numerical): 0.08 m (0.05-0.1 m) [sources: Leishman_1992; WAH_2023_2]

Sources

dataset_idn_traitsn_recordsreference
RBGV_20231419VicFlora. 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_20231115S. 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/.
Dwyer_2017311J. M. Dwyer and D. C. Laughlin. “Constraints on trait combinations explain climatic drivers of biodiversity: The importance of trait covariance in community assembly”. Ecology Letters 20.7 (2017), pp. 872-882. doi: 10.1111/ele.12781.
Standish_201966R. Standish. “Unpublished data: Jarrah forest, Murdoch University”. 2019.
Leishman_199255M. 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.
Wright_200055I. J. Wright, H. T. Clifford, R. Kidson, M. L. Reed, B. L. Rice, and M. Westoby. “A survey of seed and seedling characters in 1744 Australian dicotyledon species: Cross-species trait correlations and correlated trait-shifts within evolutionary lineages”. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 69 (2000), pp. 521-547. doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2000.tb01222.x.
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/.
Stephens_202114R. Stephens. “Unpublished data: Flowering time data from TERN plots, Macquarie University.”. 2021.
WAH_2022_244Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.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/.
NHNSW_2014_222Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
NSWFRD_201422B. Kenny, C. Orscheg, E. Tasker, M. A. Gill, and R. Bradstock. NSW Flora Fire Response Database, v2.1. database. NSW Department of Planning Industry and Environment, 2014.
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.
WAH_2023_211Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Wenk_202311E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.