The three leaflets are heart shaped, toothed near the apex, generally with dark blotches in the centre. Flowers are yellow, 5 to 7 mm solitary or 2 to 4 together. Pod is spiralled with 4 to 7 turns.

Black Medick and yellow-flowered Lucerne; hop- and lesser-trefoils have similar flowers .  There are several other medicks with similar flowers, which haven't been recorded in VC55 but may turn up; the differences depend mainly on the shape and structure of the spiny fruits. 

The fruits are spiny (the fruits of black medick and lucerne are not spiny).  The leaves are usually with a single black spot, but this can be small or absent.  If the leaves are not blotched, the fruit should be examined, with reference to the keys and diagrams in Stace (4th edition)

A photograph of the whole plant, showing leaves and/or fruits

Roadsides, wasteland and short turf.

Flowers May to September.

Spring germinating annual.

Widespread but occasional.

Local in Leicestershire and Rutland, but probably increasing. In the Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi and Evans 1988) it was found in 8 of the 617 tetrads.

In the current checklist (Jeeves, 2011) it was classed as Native; scarce.

It was on the 2011 VC55 Rare Plant Register (Jeeves, 2011) but it appears to be increasing its range, and no longer meets the criteria for inclusion on the current RPR (Hall and Woodward, 2022)