Medicago lupulina
Ecology
An annual or short-lived perennial herb of dry grassland and disturbed places on relatively infertile neutral or calcareous soils; often in sunny S.-facing pastures and on roadside banks, waste places and walls. Its has a long-lived seed bank. Generally lowland, but reaching 440 m at Nenthead (Cumberland).
Status
Trends
The overall distribution of M. lupulina is stable. It declined during the 20th century in some areas of W. Scotland (Pearman & Preston, 2000) but some pre-1970 records in Scotland may result from confusion with Trifolium dubium.
World Distribution
Eurosiberian Temperate element, but widely naturalised so that distribution is now Circumpolar Temperate.
Broad Habitats
Light (Ellenberg): 7
Moisture (Ellenberg): 4
Reaction (Ellenberg): 8
Nitrogen (Ellenberg): 4
Salt Tolerance (Ellenberg): 0
January Mean Temperature (Celsius): 3.8
July Mean Temperature (Celsius): 15
Annual Precipitation (mm): 963
Height (cm): 50
Perennation - primary
Perennation - secondary
Life Form - primary
Life Form - secondary
Woodiness
Clonality - primary
Count of 10km squares in Great Britain: 2064
Count of 10km squares in Ireland: 686
Count of 10km squares in the Channel Isles: 13
Atlas Change Index: -0.43
Weighted Changed Factor: 8
Weighted Change Factor Confidence (90%)
JNCC Designations
Atlas text references
Atlas (102d)
.
1988. Comparative Plant Ecology.
.
1986. Atlas of north European vascular plants north of the Tropic of Cancer. 3 vols.
.
1965. Vergleichende Chorologie der zentraleuropäischen Flora. Volume 1. 2 vols.
.
1979. The biology of Canadian weeds. 33. Medicago lupulina L. Canadian Journal of Plant Science. 59:99-110.
Comment on Life Form