Desmodium ×humifusum |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial. |
Stems | prostrate, 100–200(–300) cm, sparsely to densely patent-pubescent and uncinate-puberulent. |
Leaves | trifoliolate; stipules often caducous, sometimes persistent, ovate or narrowly ovate, 4.5–8 mm; petiole 28–50 mm; leaflet blades ovate or rhombic-ovate, lateral veins inconspicuous, arcuate along margin, apex acute or obtuse, surfaces sparsely strigose; terminal blade 30–70 × 20–50 mm, length 1.4–2 times width. |
Inflorescences | lax-flowered, ascending, terminal and branched, also axillary and unbranched; rachis uncinate-puberulent; primary bracts caducous, ovate, 3–4 mm. |
Pedicels | 7–9 mm. |
Flowers | calyx 2.5–3.5 mm, uncinate-puberulent, tube 1 mm; abaxial lobes 2 mm, lateral lobes 1.5 mm; corolla purple, 8–9.5 mm. |
Loments | sutures obtusely dentate abaxially, sinuate adaxially; connections adaxial, 1/4–1/3 as broad as segments; segments 3 or 4, deltate-rhombic, 6–8 × 4–5 mm, obtusely angled abaxially, straight or slightly convex adaxially, uncinate-pubescent; stipe 2 mm. |
Desmodium ×humifusum |
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Phenology | Flowering summer–fall. |
Habitat | Woodland openings and edges, powerline cuts, near exposed limestone. |
Elevation | 0–300 m. (0–1000 ft.) |
Distribution |
CT; DE; IN; MA; MD; MO; NJ; NY; PA |
Discussion | Desmodium ×humifusum had been recognized as a species, but J. A. Raveill (2002) confirmed a hybrid origin from D. paniculatum and D. rotundifolium by allozyme electrophoresis. Desmodium × humifusum is likely to occur more widely than reported. It is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants as D. humifusum. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | |
Sibling taxa | |
Synonyms | Hedysaum humifusum, Meibomia humifusa |
Name authority | (Muhlenberg ex Bigelow) L. C. Beck: Bot. North. Middle States, 86. (1833) — (as species) |
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