Medicago rigidula(L.) All.

Tifton burclover

WFO wfo-0000213465 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

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 rigidula, photographed by Tim Johnson
fig. a Tim Johnson, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-16 / obs. 188733974
Medicago rigidula, photographed by Eleftherios Katsillis
fig. b Eleftherios Katsillis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 115651708
Medicago rigidula, photographed by Yves Bas
fig. c Yves Bas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 75548204
Medicago rigidula, photographed by Юрий Данилевский (Yuriy Danilevsky)
fig. d Юрий Данилевский (Yuriy Danilevsky), CC BY 4.0 / obs. 30918208
Medicago rigidula, photographed by Eleftherios Katsillis
fig. e Eleftherios Katsillis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 115651671
Medicago rigidula, photographed by Yves Bas
fig. f Yves Bas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 75548273
Medicago rigidula, photographed by Tim Johnson
fig. g Tim Johnson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 188733992
Medicago rigidula, photographed by Юрий Данилевский (Yuriy Danilevsky)
fig. h Юрий Данилевский (Yuriy Danilevsky), CC BY 4.0 / obs. 30918214

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 28 botanical countries

Regions where Medicago rigidula is native: Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, East Aegean Is., Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Albania, Baleares, Bulgaria, Corse, France, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Krym, NW. Balkan Pen., Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, South European Russia, Spain, Ukraine AlgeriaEgyptLibyaMoroccoTunisiaEast Aegean Is.Lebanon-SyriaPalestineTürkiyeTurkmenistanUzbekistanAlbaniaBulgariaCorseFranceGreeceItalyKritiKrymNW. Balkan Pen.PortugalRomaniaSiciliaSouth European RussiaSpainUkraine BalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Medicago rigidula, 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
Albania ALB EUROPE
Baleares BAL
Bulgaria BUL
Corse COR
France FRA
Greece GRC
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
Krym KRY
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Ukraine UKR
East Aegean Is. EAI ASIA-TEMPERATE
Lebanon-Syria LBS
Palestine PAL
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
Uzbekistan UZB
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Egypt EGY
Libya LBY
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN

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 300 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -3.8 °C 0.3 °C 4.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 23.4 °C 26.4 °C 30.7 °C
Annual rainfall 469 mm 723 mm 1,101 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 33 mm 123 mm 182 mm

It is found where winters bring light frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 300 research-grade observations of Medicago rigidula 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 64 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.

  • Medica muricata (All.) Bubani
  • Medica villosa Bubani
  • Medicago agrestis Ten.
  • Medicago banofcensis Kit.
  • Medicago bondevii Kožuharov
  • Medicago cinerascens Jord.
  • Medicago cinerascens var. longiseta Lamotte
  • Medicago depressa Jord.
  • Medicago gaditana Pérez Lara ex Willk.
  • Medicago gerardi Willd.
  • Medicago gerardi Waldst. & Kit. ex Willd.
  • Medicago gerardi subsp. agrestis (Ten.) Bonnier & Layens
  • Medicago gerardi var. minor Ser.
  • Medicago gerardi var. submitis Boiss.
  • Medicago gerardii var. minor Ser.
  • Medicago gerardii var. submitis Boiss.
  • Medicago germana Jord.
  • Medicago hirsuta Thuill.
  • Medicago italica var. muricata (All.) Fiori
  • Medicago mitis Willd. ex Urb.
  • Medicago morisiana Jord.
  • Medicago muricata (L.) Desr.
  • Medicago muricata All.
  • Medicago obscura f. muricata (All.) Urb.

and 40 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.