It is safe to assume that clover is the common name for alfalfa.
Alfalfa is the common name for plants of the genus Medicago, commonly known as "clover" (clover can also be referred to as other plants of the axle grass family). It is a perennial flowering plant. The best known of these is Medicago sativa (alfalfa), which is used as forage. It is used for livestock feed.
Perennial herbaceous plant, resembling clover, known for its tolerance of drought, heat and cold, high yield and quality, and its ability to improve the soil. Widely cultivated, mainly used to make hay, silage or used as pasture. The plant is 30?90 cm (1?3 ft) tall, with a long, well-branched main root, which emerges from a root neck that is partially buried in the soil surface. The plant grows with many stems arising from the root-neck buds, usually erect, with numerous trifoliolate compound leaves on the stems, which are nearly glabrous. Leaflets obovate or oblanceolate, 1-2 centimeters long, ca. 0.5 centimeters wide, apically rounded, midribs slightly projecting, upper half of leaf serrate, base narrowly cuneate; stipules narrowly lanceolate, entire. Racemes axillary, purple. Pods spiral, unarmed, apically pointed, containing 2?8 or more seeds. Flowering and fruiting May-June. Flowers small. Thrives in sunny, moderately hot, dry climates with pollinators.
Alfalfa is known as the "king of pasture", not only high yield, but also excellent quality of grass, a variety of livestock and poultry are happy to eat. At present, the planting area of alfalfa in China is about 1.33 million hm^2. With the development of commodity economy, the industrialization scale of alfalfa has been developing fast in recent years, and the planting area of alfalfa is expanding. In order to plant alfalfa more scientifically and improve the quality and yield of alfalfa products, the technical points of alfalfa farming and cultivation management are introduced as follows.
The primary roots of alfalfa can go deep into the ground. When the plant grows for more than 20 years, the main root can reach more than 15 meters (50 feet) deep if the subsoil is porous, so alfalfa is very tolerant to drought. Seedling roots can penetrate up to 90 centimeters into the soil at 2 months of growth, and up to 180 centimeters (6 feet) at 5 months. It is common for newly planted alfalfa to survive severe summer droughts, while other shallow-rooted, branching legumes die from drought intolerance.
Alfalfa stems and branches are harvested and quickly regenerate large numbers of new stems, so hay can be harvested anywhere from 1 to 13 times per growing season. The number of harvests and the total yield per growing season are largely determined by the length of the growing season, soil suitability, availability of sunlight, and especially the amount and distribution of rainfall and irrigation during the growing season. Green-leafed alfalfa hay is a nutritious, livestock-friendly product that contains about 16% protein and 8% minerals, and is rich in vitamins A, E, D, and K.
Like all crops, alfalfa is subject to severe weather, diseases, and insects, the most damaging of which include frost, bacterial wilt, alfalfa leaf weevil, grasshoppers, alfalfa leaf aphid, and leafhoppers. In wet or irrigated areas, alfalfa clumps that are more than 3 years old are often infested with Phytomonas insidiosum, the soil wilt pathogen, and become thinned out.