Abstract
The genus Medicago is arguably the most important of the temperate pasture legume genera containing as it does the widely cultivated perennial plant Medicago saliva, (Lucerne or Alfalfa) along with a range of annual species important in specific regions. These include species such as M truncatula (Barrel medic), M littoralis (Strand medic), M polymorpha (Burr medic) the others which are widely grown in cereal crop rotations in Australia. This chapter looks firstly at the evolving taxonomy of the Genus which in the past 10 years has grown significantly from 65 to 85 species with the transfer of 23 species from Trigonella The genetic resources of the genus are then considered in terms of both their origin in the Mediterranean basin, their spread to Secondary Centres of diversity as far away as South America and Australia and their current ex-situ conservation status. Medicago germplasm is conserved in several major genebanks holding between 7,500 and 25,000 accessions in long term storage. Finally the chapter discusses the value of a range of perennial and annual Medicago species, for both agricultural and environmental purposes as well as raising a number of research needs.
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Prosperi, JM., Auricht, G., Génier, G., Johnson, R. (2001). Medics (Medicago L.). In: Maxted, N., Bennett, S.J. (eds) Plant Genetic Resources of Legumes in the Mediterranean. Current Plant Science and Biotechnology in Agriculture, vol 39. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9823-1_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9823-1_5
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