Looking at Legume Leaves

Terry Tagasaste sounds like a pretty cool plant. Have you ever met her? Look closely at the the tagasaste leaf picture then use your detective skills to track her down.

• download the the Tagasaste leaves picture and print it out.
• take a walk around your local area and see if you can find any of Terry's cousins growing near you.
• if you find a plant with the right sort of leaves, check that it is a legume. (Hint:- look for pods either on the plant or on the ground underneath it).

If it is, chances are that you're looking at a tagasate plant!

Did you know that tagasaste is also called "tree lucerne"? It's very popular with horses, goats and chickens as well as with sheep, and the long branches covered with white flowers look great in a vase as well.

There is large variation in the shape of legume leaves. Tagasaste has compound leaves - this means that each leaf is made up of a number of smaller leaflets. Other legumes with compound leaves are medic and clovers.

Question: How many leaflets in a clover leaf?
Question: How many leaflets in a medic leaf?

Challenge Question: The medic plant in the picture has some spiky structures near the leaves. Can you work out what they are?

Mike "The Spike" Medic lives at Downsanup Downs. Meet him in Episode 7.

Can you guess which part of the medic plant Mike "The Spike" Medic is?