AusTraits

Medicago truncatula

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Fabaceae

Taxonomy: Medicago truncatula Gaertn.

Synonyms: 4 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Medicago tentaculata Willd. (orthographic variant)
  • Medicago tribuloides Desr. (taxonomic synonym)
  • Medicago tribuloides var. truncatula (Gaertn.) W.D.J.Koch (nomenclatural synonym)
  • Medicago truncatula Gaertn. var. truncatula (nomenclatural synonym)

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

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

Traits

Top source datasets: NHNSW_2014_2 (2), NHNSW_2022 (3), NHNSW_2023 (15), NSWFRD_2014 (2), NTH_2022 (4), NTH_2023 (5), RBGV_2022 (4), RBGV_2023 (19), SAH_2022 (3), SAH_2023 (16), Stephens_2021 (4), WAH_2022_2 (4), WAH_2023_2 (1), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 23 traits from 85 records in 15 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): 7.62 mm (4.5-11 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]
  • fruit_width (numerical): 7 mm (4.5-11 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • fruit_height (numerical): 7.92 mm (4.5-12 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • fruit_type (categorical): legume (3); legume_indehiscent (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (1) [sources: RBGV_2023]
  • fruit_colour (categorical): grey (1); yellow (1) [sources: SAH_2023]
leaf morphology
  • leaf_length (numerical): 13 mm (5-25 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • leaf_width (numerical): 11.5 mm (3-20 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • leaf_shape (categorical): obcordate (1); obovate (3); obtriangular (1); obtrullate (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; RBGV_2023]
  • leaf_margin (categorical): toothed (1); toothed_dentate (3); toothed_serrate (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • leaf_compoundness (categorical): compound (4) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): alternate (2) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; RBGV_2023]
  • plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (4) [sources: NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
life history
  • plant_growth_form (categorical): herb (7) [sources: NHNSW_2022; NSWFRD_2014; NTH_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • life_history (categorical): annual (6) [sources: NHNSW_2022; NTH_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
  • woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (6) [sources: NHNSW_2022; NTH_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • stem_growth_habit (categorical): decumbent (2); prostrate (2) [sources: NTH_2022; RBGV_2022; WAH_2022_2]
  • flowering_time (categorical): nnnnnnnnyynn (1); nnnnnnnnyyyn (1); nnnnnnnnyyyy (1); nnnynnnnynnn (1) [sources: Stephens_2021]
seed morphology
  • seed_length (numerical): 3.75 mm (2.5-4.5 mm) [sources: RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
  • seed_shape (categorical): reniform (2) [sources: RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
whole plant morphology
  • plant_height (numerical): 0.05 m (0.05-0.05 m) [sources: 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/.
SAH_20231116S. 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_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/.
NTH_202355D. of Land Resource Management and N. T. of Australia. Northern Territory Flora Online. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://eflora.nt.gov.au/.
NTH_202244D. of Land Resource Management and N. T. of Australia. Northern Territory Flora Online. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://eflora.nt.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/.
NHNSW_202233N. 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/.
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.
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.