Desmodium incanum |
Desmodium psilocarpum |
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|---|---|---|
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creeping beggarweed, Spanish clover, Spanish tick-trefoil, zarzabacoa comun |
Santa Cruz Island ticktrefoil |
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| Habit | Herbs, subshrubs, or shrubs, perennial; stoloniferous or rhizomatous. | Herbs or shrubs, perennial. |
| Stems | erect or ascending, to 300 cm, pubescent or glabrescent. |
erect or ascending, branched, 40–100 cm, slightly uncinate-pubescent and pilose or glabrescent. |
| 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 mostly persistent, broadly ovate, 4–10 mm, base subamplexicaul; petiole 30–40 mm; leaflet blades broadly ovate-elliptic or ovate to narrowly ovate, apex acute, surfaces uncinate-puberulent; terminal blade 20–70(–100) × 10–20(–50) mm, length 1.8–2 times width. |
| Inflorescences | unbranched; rachis densely patent uncinate-pubescent; primary bracts caducous, narrowly ovate, 6–7 mm. |
branched or unbranched; rachis bulbous-villous and uncinate-puberulent; primary bracts caducous, subulate, 1 mm. |
| Pedicels | persistent with calyx-remnant at top after loments drop, 5–9 mm. |
10–20 mm, patent uncinate-pubescent. |
| 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 1.5–2 mm, pilose and uncinate-puberulent, tube 0.8 mm; abaxial lobes 1 mm, lateral lobes 0.8–1 mm; corolla pink-purple, fading greenish, 4–5 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 subequally deeply crenate; connections central, 1/8–1/7 as broad as segments; segments 3–6, rounded, 6–10 × 5–7 mm, rounded, sparsely pubescent, at least on sutures; stipe 1(–2) mm. |
| 2n | = 22. |
|
Desmodium incanum |
Desmodium psilocarpum |
|
| Phenology | Flowering spring–fall. | Flowering late summer–fall. |
| Habitat | Pine-palmetto flatwoods, woodland borders, lawns, ruderal sites, disturbed or waste areas. | Woodland, grasslands, canyon slopes, streamsides. |
| Elevation | 0–50 m. [0–160 ft.] | 1000–2000 m. [3300–6600 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; NM; Mexico (Chihuahua, Nuevo León, 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.) |
Desmodium psilocarpum is known in the flora area from southern Arizona and adjacent southwestern New Mexico. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
| Parent taxa | ||
| 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 psilocarpa |
| 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): 48. (1853) |
| Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
| Web links | ||