Medicago laciniata(L.) Mill.

cutleaf medick

WFO wfo-0000213448 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Medicago laciniata, photographed by Nicola van Berkel
fig. a Nicola van Berkel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-03-30 / obs. 203287085
Medicago laciniata, photographed by Charles Stirton
fig. b Charles Stirton, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 90278667
Medicago laciniata, photographed by Nicola van Berkel
fig. c Nicola van Berkel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 203287065
Medicago laciniata, photographed by Charles Stirton
fig. d Charles Stirton, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 90278718
Medicago laciniata, photographed by Brian du Preez
fig. e Brian du Preez, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 35453833
Medicago laciniata, photographed by Nicola van Berkel
fig. f Nicola van Berkel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 203287045
Medicago laciniata, photographed by Charles Stirton
fig. g Charles Stirton, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 90278685
Medicago laciniata, photographed by Andre Hosper
fig. h Andre Hosper, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 23385480

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 37 botanical countries

Regions where Medicago laciniata is native: Algeria, Botswana, Canary Is., Cape Provinces, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Free State, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Libya, Madeira, Mauritania, Morocco, Namibia, Northern Provinces, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Western Sahara, Afghanistan, Gulf States, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon-Syria, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sinai, Yemen, India, Pakistan, West Himalaya AlgeriaBotswanaCape ProvincesDjiboutiEgyptEthiopiaFree StateKenyaKwaZulu-NatalLesothoLibyaMauritaniaMoroccoNamibiaNorthern ProvincesSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTunisiaWestern SaharaAfghanistanGulf StatesIranIraqKuwaitLebanon-SyriaOmanPalestineSaudi ArabiaSinaiYemenIndiaPakistanWest Himalaya Canary Is.Madeira
Native distribution of Medicago laciniata, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Botswana BOT
Canary Is. CNY
Cape Provinces CPP
Djibouti DJI
Egypt EGY
Ethiopia ETH
Free State OFS
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Lesotho LES
Libya LBY
Madeira MDR
Mauritania MTN
Morocco MOR
Namibia NAM
Northern Provinces TVL
Socotra SOC
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Tunisia TUN
Western Sahara WSA
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
Gulf States GST
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Kuwait KUW
Lebanon-Syria LBS
Oman OMA
Palestine PAL
Saudi Arabia SAU
Sinai SIN
Yemen YEM
India IND ASIA-TROPICAL
Pakistan PAK
West Himalaya WHM

Not drawn on the map: Socotra. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 106 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 1.1 °C 6.8 °C 15.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 22.5 °C 33.0 °C 37.6 °C
Annual rainfall 64 mm 289 mm 598 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 0 mm 6 mm 75 mm

It is found where winters are cool but frost is light or absent. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 106 research-grade observations of Medicago laciniata that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 28 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Medicago aschersoniana Urb.
  • Medicago aschersoniana f. pilosula Urb.
  • Medicago aschersoniana var. brachyacantha (Boiss.) Urb.
  • Medicago aschersoniana var. macrantha Urb.
  • Medicago diffusa Poir.
  • Medicago laciniata subsp. aschersoniana (Urb.) Thell.
  • Medicago laciniata subsp. brevispina (Benth. ex Urb.) Arcang.
  • Medicago laciniata subsp. laciniata
  • Medicago laciniata subsp. longispina (Benth. ex Urb.) Arcang.
  • Medicago laciniata subsp. schimperiana (Hochst. ex Boiss.) P.Fourn.
  • Medicago laciniata var. brachyacantha Boiss.
  • Medicago laciniata var. brachyantha Boiss.
  • Medicago laciniata var. brevidenticulata Candargy
  • Medicago laciniata var. brevispina Benth. ex Urb.
  • Medicago laciniata var. diffusa (Poir.) F.M.Vázquez
  • Medicago laciniata var. integrifolia Delile
  • Medicago laciniata var. integriuscula Cuisin
  • Medicago laciniata var. intermedia Nègre
  • Medicago laciniata var. leonis Sennen & Mauricio
  • Medicago laciniata var. longispina Benth. ex Urb.
  • Medicago laciniata var. micrechinus Maire
  • Medicago laciniata var. pilosa Nábělek
  • Medicago laciniata var. saharae Nègre
  • Medicago leonis Sennen & Mauricio

and 4 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.