noun. A southwest Asian perennial herb (Medicago sativa) in the pea family, having compound leaves with three leaflets and clusters of usually blue-violet flowers. It is widely cultivated as a pasture and hay crop.

noun. The Spanish name of lucerne, Medicago sativa, and the common name under which the chief varieties of lucerne are known in the western United States.

noun. The lucern (Medicago sativa), a leguminous plant having bluish purple cloverlike flowers, and cultivated for fodder; -- so called in California, Texas, etc.

noun. A plant, Medicago sativa, grown as a pasture crop.

noun. A type or breed of this plant.

noun. important European leguminous forage plant with trifoliate leaves and blue-violet flowers grown widely as a pasture and hay crop

noun. leguminous plant grown for hay or forage

"It will probably be news to most readers that alfalfa -- the wonderful forage crop of the West, the producer of more gold than all the mines of the Klondike -- was in use so long ago, for the impression is pretty general that it is comparatively new; the fact is that it is older than the Christian era and that the name alfalfa comes from the Arabic and means "the best crop.""

oasis alfalfa  turkestan alfalfa  

fodder  medic  medick  trefoil  

alfa  alpha  

beet  broccoli  buckwheat  celery  clover