Urban Nature Pictures 4/22

[urbpan]

Black medick, a weedy legume and close relative of alfalfa.

Comments

[brian-z.livejournal.com]

I assume this is an old picture, I don't think these bloom for a while?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Nope, taken 4/22 as the title indicates. My Peterson's guide says they bloom from March-December (pretty wide range!)

[brian-z.livejournal.com]

Wow cool, I guess I need to get out more :)

[ideath.livejournal.com]

The seeds are black. Are they medicinal or something? What's with the name?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

From my 365 entry: The name comes from the black seed pods it produces--the "medick" part is a little less intuitive. Medick is an anglicized form of Medica, which, in this context means "of Media," an area of the Middle East. Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) is the plant that originally had this name, and black medick is closely related. It would be tempting to find a history of medicinal use for plants named medick, but the mundane truth is that they are used in agriculture.

[brian-z.livejournal.com]

I guess you can grind the seeds and use them as flour, I've never tried it though.

[weofodthignen]

Oh wow, this is what I've been calling yellow clover. It likes one half of our back lawn, and I assume it puts back some nitrogen - plus it's pretty. But it gets these prickly burr seeds so I have to rip it out after a while to spare the dog's paws. I didn't realize it wasn't actually a clover.

M