This yellow pea plant could be very difficult to identify if wasn't for the fruits which give it the English name: Bur Medick. They are coils with spines looking just like tiny burs. This annual plant itself is procumbent and very small so that a tall botanist might easily overlook it. This specimen, although a national rarity, was in the grass verge of an industrial estate.

M. minima is mostly found in East Angla and south eastern England with outposts in Lancashire and Gloucestershire. There are few records from Wales or Scotland and none from Ireland.

Breckland, 18th June 2005

Added on November 9th 2005, updated 21st December 2010