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Alfalfa
Medicago sativa
Family: Pea or Bean (Fabaceae)
Height: 1-3' (30-90 cm)
Flower: tight spike clusters, 1-2" (2.5-5 cm) long, of blue-to-purple flowers, each 1⁄4-1⁄3" (.6-.8 cm) long; flowers have 1 large upper petal and 3 smaller lower petals
Leaf: 3-part clover-like leaf, 1-2" (2.5-5 cm) long
Fruit: green seedpods twist into coils and become nearly black with age
Bloom: spring, summer, fall
Cycle/Origin: perennial, non-native
Habitat: dry, sun, fields, along roads
Range: throughout
Stan’s Notes: This deep-rooted perennial is usually found along roads or fields where it has escaped cultivation. Alfalfa is often planted by farmers as a food crop for farm animals and to improve soil fertility (it fixes nitrogen from the air into the soil through its roots). A winter-hardy variety of alfalfa, developed by Wendeline Grimm in Carver County, Minnesota, in the late 1800s, was partially responsible for the establishment of the dairy industry in the upper Midwest in the early 1900s. Alfalfa’s thin stems often cause the plant to fall under its own weight at maturity, leaving it prostrate. Its flower color ranges from light blue to dark purple, and it is a prime host plant for the alfalfa butterfly, Orange Sulphur.
