Burr Clover
Category:
ALFALFA
Burr Clover (Medicago maculata) is sometimes called Spotted Medick and
sometimes California clover, also Yellow clover. The name burr clover
has doubtless arisen from the closely coiled seed pod, which, being
covered with curved prickles, adhere to wool more or less as burrs do.
The name Spotted Medick has been given because of the dark spot found in
the middle of the leaflets, in conjunction with the family of plants to
which it belongs. The name California clover is given because of the
claim that it was much grown in California after having been introduced
there from Chili, and the name yellow clover, from the color of the
blossoms. After its introduction into the United States, seedsmen sell
California and Southern burr clover as two varieties, but the
correctness of the distinction thus made has been questioned. Many
persons were wont to confuse it with alfalfa, or, as it is frequently
called, lucerne, but the latter is much more upright in its habit of
growth, grows to a greater height, has more blossoms, blue in color, and
seed pods more loosely coiled. It is also to be distinguished from a
variety (Medicago denticulata) which bears much resemblance to it, and
which, growing wild over portions of the plains and foothills of the
West, affords considerable pasture.
Burr clover may properly be termed a winter annual, since the seed comes
up in the autumn, furnishes grazing in the winter and spring, and dies
with the advent of summer. It is procumbent or spreading and branched.
On good soil some of the plants radiate to the distance of several feet
from the parent root. They have been known to overlap, and thus
accumulate until the ground was covered 2 feet deep with this clover,
thus making it very difficult to plow them under. It is only under the
most favorable conditions, however, that the plants produce such a mass
of foliage. The leaves are composed of three somewhat large leaflets.
The flowers, as previously intimated, are yellow, and there are but two
or three in each cluster, but the clusters are numerous; hence, also the
pods are numerous. They are about 1/4 of an inch broad, and when mature
are possessed of considerable food value.
Burr clover grows chiefly during the winter, and is at its best for
pasture during the months of March and April, and in the Gulf States
dies down after having produced seed in May. Though it is frequently
sown, it has the power of self-propagation to a marked degree, which
makes it possible to grow many crops in succession without re-seeding by
hand.
It is not considered a good hay plant, but its value for pasture is
considerable, although, as a rule, animals do not take kindly to it at
first, as they do to alfalfa or medium red clover, but later they become
fond of it, but less so, probably, in the case of horses than of other
animals. Being a legume, it is helpful in enriching the land, and being
a free grower, it improves the soil mechanically through its root
growth, and also through the stems and leaves, when these are plowed
under.
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