Desmodium incanum |
Desmodium laevigatum |
|
---|---|---|
creeping beggarweed, Spanish clover, Spanish tick-trefoil, zarzabacoa comun |
smooth tickclover, smooth ticktrefoil |
|
Habit | Herbs, subshrubs, or shrubs, perennial; stoloniferous or rhizomatous. | Herbs, perennial; base woody, from thick rootstock, sometimes with somewhat tuberous roots. |
Stems | erect or ascending, to 300 cm, pubescent or glabrescent. |
ascending to erect, usually striate, 30–100(–150) cm, glabrous or 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. |
trifoliolate; stipules caducous, narrowly ovate to ovate, 2–4 mm; petiole 20–60 mm; leaflet blades ovate, thick, ± leathery, apex obtuse or somewhat acute, surfaces pale to glaucous, glabrous or sparsely puberulent and/or strigose abaxially, glabrous or sparsely puberulent adaxially; terminal blade 35–90 × 20–45 mm, length 1.5–2.5 times width. |
Inflorescences | unbranched; rachis densely patent uncinate-pubescent; primary bracts caducous, narrowly ovate, 6–7 mm. |
branched or unbranched; rachis densely uncinate-puberulent; primary bracts ovate, 3–3.5 mm. |
Pedicels | persistent with calyx-remnant at top after loments drop, 5–9 mm. |
5–10 mm, 10–20 mm in fruit, uncinate-puberulent. |
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 3–4 mm, puberulent, tube 1.5 mm; abaxial lobes 2 mm, lateral lobes 1.5 mm; corolla lavender to purple, 8–10 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 deeply dentate abaxially, sinuate adaxially; connections adaxial, 1/4 as broad as segments; segments (2 or)3–5, deltate to oblique-rhombic, 5–8 × 3.5–4 mm, obtusely angled abaxially, convex or straight adaxially, uncinate-puberulent; stipe 5–6.5 mm. |
2n | = 22. |
= 22. |
Desmodium incanum |
Desmodium laevigatum |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring–fall. | Flowering late summer–fall. |
Habitat | Pine-palmetto flatwoods, woodland borders, lawns, ruderal sites, disturbed or waste areas. | Deciduous or mixed, open, upland or bottom woodlands and borders, abandoned fields, roadsides. |
Elevation | 0–50 m. (0–200 ft.) | 0–900 m. (0–3000 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]
|
AL; AR; DC; DE; FL; GA; IL; IN; KY; LA; MD; MO; MS; NC; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA; WV
|
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 Texas, Desmodium laevigatum is known from the eastern third of the state. (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 | Hedysarum laevigatum, Meibomia laevigata |
Name authority | (Swartz) de Candolle in A. P. de Candolle and A. L. P. P. de Candolle: Prodr. 2: 332. (1825) — name conserved | (Nuttall) de Candolle in A. P. de Candolle and A. L. P. P. de Candolle: Prodr. 2: 329. (1825) |
Web links |