Index / Search / Medicago sativa
§1 Plant — species · Fabaceae
Medicago sativa L.
vernacular alfalfa
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Forb/herb
- Duration
- Annual, Perennial
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Fabaceae Lindl.
- Genus
- Medicago
§2a
Native status, by region
- AK Alaska Introduced
- CAN Canada Introduced
- HI Hawaii Introduced
- L48 Lower 48 States Introduced
- PR Puerto Rico Introduced
- VI U.S. Virgin Islands Introduced
§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- High
- Shade
- High
- Moisture use
- High
- Fire
- High
- Salinity
- Medium
- Anaerobic
- None
- CaCO₃
- High
- Hedging
- None
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- -43 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 90 min.
- Precipitation
- 12–65 in/yr
- pH range
- 6–8.5
- Root depth
- 24 in min.
- Fertility need
- High
- Soil texture
- medium, fine
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Single Crown
- Growth rate
- Rapid
- Lifespan
- Long
- Mature height
- 2 ft
- Foliage texture
- Fine
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Moderate
- Porosity (winter)
- Porous
- Flower colour
- Purple
- Fruit colour
- Brown
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- High
- Toxicity
- None
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Spring
- Seed abundance
- High
- Seed begins
- Summer
- Seed ends
- Summer
- Spread rate
- Slow
- Stratify
- No
- Seeds / lb
- 226,800
- Propagation
- seed
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- Routinely Available
- Nursery stock
- No
- Browse palatability
- High
- Graze palatability
- High
- Palatable, human
- Yes
- Protein potential
- High
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Montana distribution
Recorded in 33 of 56 Montana counties.
Introduced · 33 counties
- Beaverhead 30001
- Big Horn 30003
- Blaine 30005
- Carbon 30009
- Cascade 30013
- Fergus 30027
- Flathead 30029
- Gallatin 30031
- Golden Valley 30037
- Jefferson 30043
- Judith Basin 30045
- Lake 30047
- Lewis and Clark 30049
- Lincoln 30053
- Madison 30057
- McCone 30055
- Meagher 30059
- Missoula 30063
- Park 30067
- Petroleum 30069
- Phillips 30071
- Powell 30077
- Prairie 30079
- Ravalli 30081
- Richland 30083
- Roosevelt 30085
- Sanders 30089
- Silver Bow 30093
- Sweet Grass 30097
- Teton 30099
- Toole 30101
- Valley 30105
- Wheatland 30107
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/MESA ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/9151957 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-25
fetched 2026-05-25T16:28:53Z