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 Family : FABACEAE(Pea Or Bean Family)
 Family (Hindi name) : PALASH FAMILY (पलाश फैमिली)  Family (as per The APG System III) : Fabaceae Subfamily : Faboideae  Species Name (as per The IPNI) : Medicago sativa L.  Common name : Lucerne, alfalfa, common purple lucerne, common lucerne, purple alfalfa, purple medick  Vernacular name :
Vilayati ghas (Gujarati)  Lusan ghas (Hindi)  Lusarne soppu, Vilaayiti hullu (Kannada)  Vilayati gavat (Marathi)  Dureshta, Sinjhi (Oriya)  Ashvabala (Sanskrit)  Kutirai macal (Tamil) 
 Habit : Herb  Habitat : Cultivated throughout India, often escaped to roadsides, fields, grasslands, and stream banks  Comments / notes : Cultivated on the hills.  Key identification features : Flowers purple to blue; Pods forming a double spiral.  Flower, Fruit : March-May  Distribution : 
 Odisha : Common  Uttarakhand : Uttarakhand  Himachal Pradesh : Chamba district, Kinnaur district, Lahaul & Spiti district  Delhi : Delhi  Uttar Pradesh : Uttar Pradesh  Punjab : Punjab 
 Native : Algeria, France, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Krym, North Caucasus, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Yugoslavia  Exotic/Native : Exotic  World Distribution : Algeria, France, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Krym, North Caucasus, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Yugoslavia  Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)  Literature :
H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1994- Flora of Orissa Vol. 1  Matthew, K.M., Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (1). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983.  Uniyal B.P., Sharma J.R., Choudhery U., Singh D.K. (2007). Flowering Plants of Uttarakhand: A Checklist. Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh: 109  H J, Chowdhery, et al. Flora of Himachal Pradesh. Volume 1, Botanical Survey of India, 1984. Pg.: 216 
 Read more :
 Permalink : http://indiaflora-ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Medicago sativa Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Deepak Kumar (2025). India Flora Online. http://indiaflora-ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Medicago sativa. Downloaded on  31 October 2025. |  | 
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