Desmodium incanum |
Desmodium illinoense |
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creeping beggarweed, Spanish clover, Spanish tick-trefoil, zarzabacoa comun |
Illinois tickclover, Illinois ticktrefoil |
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Habit | Herbs, subshrubs, or shrubs, perennial; stoloniferous or rhizomatous. | Herbs, perennial. |
Stems | erect or ascending, to 300 cm, pubescent or glabrescent. |
ascending to erect, branched or unbranched, 50–100 cm, medially uncinate-pubescent, sometimes also ± pilose. |
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. |
trifoliolate; stipules persistent, ovate, 8–15 mm, base amplexicaul, pilose-ciliate; petiole 30–50 mm; leaflet blades narrowly ovate to ovate, thick, papery, apex acute to rounded, surfaces conspicuously reticulate-veined abaxially, uncinate-puberulent on veins abaxially, sparsely spreading-villous or glabrous adaxially; terminal blade 35–80 × 30–70 mm, length 1.5–3 times width. |
Inflorescences | unbranched; rachis densely patent uncinate-pubescent; primary bracts caducous, narrowly ovate, 6–7 mm. |
usually unbranched; rachis patent-pilose and uncinate-puberulent; primary bracts narrowly ovate, 4–5 mm. |
Pedicels | persistent with calyx-remnant at top after loments drop, 5–9 mm. |
7–15(–23) mm. |
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 4–5 mm, uncinate-puberulent and pilose, tube 2–3 mm; abaxial lobes 2.5 mm, lateral lobes 2 mm; corolla purplish, 6–8 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. |
sutures equally crenate; connections central, 1/2–4/5 as broad as segments; segments 4–7, elliptic or suborbiculate, 4–7 × 3.5–5 mm, symmetrically convex abaxially and adaxially, densely uncinate-puberulent and villous; stipe 2–4 mm. |
2n | = 22. |
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Desmodium incanum |
Desmodium illinoense |
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Phenology | Flowering spring–fall. | Flowering summer(–fall). |
Habitat | Pine-palmetto flatwoods, woodland borders, lawns, ruderal sites, disturbed or waste areas. | Prairie relics, thickets, roadsides. |
Elevation | 0–50 m. (0–200 ft.) | 100–500 m. (300–1600 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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AR; IA; IL; IN; KS; MI; MN; MO; NE; OH; OK; SD; TX; WI
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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.) |
Desmodium illinoense is considered extirpated from Ontario, where it was collected once in 1888 near London. (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 | Meibomia illinoensis |
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: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 8: 289. (1870) |
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