Desmodium incanum
Desmodium marilandicum
creeping beggarweed, Spanish clover, Spanish tick-trefoil, zarzabacoa comun
Maryland tickclover, smooth small-leaf tick-trefoil
erect or ascending, to 300 cm, pubescent or glabrescent.
ascending to erect, usually striate, branched or unbranched, 30–150 cm, glabrous or sparsely to densely uncinate-puberulent, sometimes also patent long-pilose.
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 or moderately persistent, subulate to narrowly ovate, 2–5 mm;
petiole 1–30 mm;
leaflet blades narrowly ovate, elliptic, elliptic-ovate, ovate-rhombic, or suborbiculate, apex obtuse or acute, mucronulate, surfaces sparsely to densely uncinate-puberulent and appressed-villous abaxially, uncinate-puberulent or glabrescent adaxially;
terminal blade 9–75 × 6–33 mm, length 1.5–4(–5) times width.
unbranched;
rachis densely patent uncinate-pubescent;
primary bracts caducous, narrowly ovate, 6–7 mm.
terminal and branched, axillary and unbranched;
rachis uncinate-puberulent;
primary bracts ovate, 1.5–3 mm.
persistent with calyx-remnant at top after loments drop, 5–9 mm.
3–19 mm, uncinate-puberulent.
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 1.5–2.5 mm, pubescent (not uncinate-puberulent), tube 1 mm;
abaxial lobes 1.2–1.5 mm, lateral lobes 1 mm;
corolla usually lavender to red-violet or pink-purple, rarely white, 4–6 mm.
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 crenate abaxially, sinuate adaxially;
connections adaxial, 1/4–1/2 as broad as segments;
segments 1–4, broadly elliptic, 3.5–5.5 × 2.5–4 mm, rounded abaxially, convex adaxially, uncinate-puberulent throughout;
stipe 1–2 mm.
= 22.
= 22.
Desmodium incanum
Desmodium marilandicum
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.)
Varieties 3 (3 in the flora).
Desmodium ciliare, D. lancifolium, and D. marilandicum have generally been recognized as closely related but distinct species in floras of the United States. They commonly have two or three articulate, small loments. D. Isely (1990, 1998) grouped them as the D. ciliare Group and regarded forms intermediate between them as putative hybrids: D. ciliare × D. marilandicum and D. ciliare × D. lancifolium. They have been separated by differences in the leaflets and pubescence, but the differences are not always clear. They are treated here as one species with three varieties.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Terminal leaflet blades elliptic-ovate to narrowly ovate, 50–75 × 20–33 mm, apex acute to obtuse. | var. lancifolium |
1. Terminal leaflet blades elliptic, ovate, ovate-rhombic, or suborbiculate, 9–40 × 6–17 mm, apex obtuse. | → 2 |
2. Petioles 12–30 mm, sparsely uncinate-puberulent; stems with a few, scattered hairs; pedicels (6–)8–19 mm. | var. marilandicum |
2. Petioles 1–15 mm; stems and petioles uncinate-puberulent and patent long-pilose; pedicels. | var. ciliare |
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