Desmodium incanum |
Desmodium gramineum |
|
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creeping beggarweed, Spanish clover, Spanish tick-trefoil, zarzabacoa comun |
grassleaf ticktrefoil |
|
Habit | Herbs, subshrubs, or shrubs, perennial; stoloniferous or rhizomatous. | Herbs, perennial. |
Stems | erect or ascending, to 300 cm, pubescent or glabrescent. |
stiffly erect or ascending, branched at base and appearing clustered, 40–80 cm, glabrescent or sparsely uncinate-puberulent. |
Leaves | trifoliolate; stipules usually persistent, narrowly ovate-deltate, 5–10 mm; petiole usually 15–20 mm; leaflet blades elliptic to ovate, apex obtuse or acute, surfaces finely spreading-villosulous to substrigose abaxially, uncinate-puberulent or glabrescent adaxially; terminal blade 20–90 × 15–45 mm, length 1.5–4 times width. |
unifoliolate; stipules caducous, narrowly ovate, 3–9 mm; petiole 10–30 mm; leaflet blades linear, (40–)70–130 × 2–5 mm, length 10+ times width, apex acute or acuminate, surfaces uncinate-puberulent and sparsely strigose on veins abaxially, uncinate-puberulent adaxially. |
Inflorescences | unbranched; rachis densely patent uncinate-pubescent; primary bracts caducous, narrowly ovate, 6–7 mm. |
branched or unbranched; rachis sparsely uncinate-puberulent; primary bracts ovate, 2–3 mm. |
Pedicels | persistent with calyx-remnant at top after loments drop, 5–9 mm. |
10–20 mm, uncinate-puberulent or glabrescent. |
Flowers | calyx 2–3.5 mm, uncinate-puberulent, lobes pilose, tube 1 mm; abaxial lobes 1.5–2.5 mm, lateral lobes 1–2 mm; corolla purple, 5–8 mm. |
calyx 2 mm, puberulent and uncinate-puberulent, tube 0.8 mm; abaxial lobes 1.2 mm, lateral lobes 1 mm; corolla ephemeral, purple, 3 mm. |
Loments | sutures symmetrically crenate abaxially, straight or slightly sinuate adaxially; connections central, 1/2–2/3 as broad as segments; segments 4–8, semiobovate, 3.5–5 × 2.5–3 mm, broadly rounded abaxially, straight or barely convex adaxially, uncinate-puberulent; stipe 1.5–2 mm. |
margins slightly involute, sutures equally crenate; connections central, 1/4 as broad as segments; segments 3–6, broadly elliptic, (2–)3–3.5 × 2.5–3 mm, convex or rounded abaxially and adaxially, sparsely uncinate-puberulent, sutures moderately uncinate-puberulent; stipe to 1 mm. |
2n | = 22. |
|
Desmodium incanum |
Desmodium gramineum |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring–fall. | Flowering late summer–fall. |
Habitat | Pine-palmetto flatwoods, woodland borders, lawns, ruderal sites, disturbed or waste areas. | Dry woodlands, grasslands, open hillsides. |
Elevation | 0–50 m. (0–200 ft.) | 1100–1500 m. (3600–4900 ft.) |
Distribution |
AL; FL; GA; TX; Central America; South America; Mexico (Chiapas, Jalisco, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, Tamaulipas, Veracruz); West Indies [Introduced in North America; introduced also in Asia (Taiwan), Africa, Indian Ocean Islands (Mauritius, Reunion), Pacific Islands, Australia]
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AZ; Mexico (Chihuahua, Colima, Jalisco, Michoacán, Oaxaca, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tamaulipas) |
Discussion | Desmodium incanum may be distinguished by its long-persistent stipules usually fused and nearly surrounding the stem, at least when young, and by its pedicels which are usually borne singly and are each subtended by one primary bract and two (lateral) secondary bracts (B. G. Schubert 1980). Desmodium incanum was long known as D. canum Schinz & Thellung (= Meibomia cana S. F. Blake) based on the illegitimate Hedysarum canum J. F. Gmelin, a superfluous name for H. racemosum Aublet. The complex nomenclatural history was elaborated by D. H. Nicolson (1978) and L. C. P. Lima et al. (2012, 2014). Hedysarum canescens Miller (1768) is a later homonym of H. canescens Linnaeus (1753), thus illegitimate, and pertains here. Hedysarum canum J. F. Gmelin is a superfluous name for H. racemosum Aublet; Meibomia cana S. F. Blake was intended as a new combination based on that name. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
In Arizona, Desmodium gramineum is known from Cochise, Pima, Pinal, and Santa Cruz counties. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Desmodium | Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Desmodium |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Hedysarum incanum, Aeschynomene incana, D. ancistrocarpum, D. canum, D. frutescens, D. frutescens var. amplyophyllum, D. malacophyllum, D. mauritianum, D. supinum var. amblyophyllum, H. ancistrocarpum, H. malacophyllum, H. mauritianum, H. racemosum, Meibomia adscendens var. incana, M. incana, M. malacophylla, M. supina | D. angustifolium var. gramineum, Meibomia graminea |
Name authority | (Swartz) de Candolle in A. P. de Candolle and A. L. P. P. de Candolle: Prodr. 2: 332. (1825) — name conserved | A. Gray: Smithsonian Contr. Knowl. 5(6): 46. (1853) |
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