Desmodium incanum |
Desmodium tweedyi |
|
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creeping beggarweed, Spanish clover, Spanish tick-trefoil, zarzabacoa comun |
Tweedy's ticktrefoil |
|
Habit | Herbs, subshrubs, or shrubs, perennial; stoloniferous or rhizomatous. | Herbs, perennial. |
Stems | erect or ascending, to 300 cm, pubescent or glabrescent. |
ascending or erect, usually striate, angled, 30–100 cm, densely uncinate-puberulent to -pubescent and sparsely glutinous-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, 7.5–14.5 mm; petiole 40–90 mm; leaflet blades narrowly ovate to ovate or broadly ovate, thick, leathery, apex acute, usually pale-blotched along midrib adaxially, surfaces uncinate-puberulent to -pubescent and villous; terminal blade 40–120 × 20–66 mm, length 2 times width. |
Inflorescences | unbranched; rachis densely patent uncinate-pubescent; primary bracts caducous, narrowly ovate, 6–7 mm. |
branched or unbranched; rachis densely uncinate-puberulent to -pubescent and glutinous-villous; primary bracts ovate to broadly ovate, 7–10 mm. |
Pedicels | persistent with calyx-remnant at top after loments drop, 5–9 mm. |
8–25 mm, patent uncinate-pubescent and pilose. |
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 3–5 mm, puberulent and pubescent, ± glutinous, tube 1.2–1.5 mm; abaxial lobes 2.5–4 mm, lateral lobes 1.5 mm; corolla white, 7–8 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 nearly equally crenate; connections adaxial, 1/4 as broad as segments; segments (2 or)3–5(or 6), subrhombic, 6–8 × 4 mm, obtusely angled abaxially, somewhat angled adaxially, densely uncinate-pubescent throughout; stipe 2–4 mm. |
2n | = 22. |
|
Desmodium incanum |
Desmodium tweedyi |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring–fall. | Flowering early summer. |
Habitat | Pine-palmetto flatwoods, woodland borders, lawns, ruderal sites, disturbed or waste areas. | Woodlands near creeks, usually calcareous soils. |
Elevation | 0–50 m. (0–200 ft.) | 200–800 m. (700–2600 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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OK; TX |
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 tweedyi is known from the Edwards Plateau area and north-central Texas northward to central Oklahoma. (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 tweedyi |
Name authority | (Swartz) de Candolle in A. P. de Candolle and A. L. P. P. de Candolle: Prodr. 2: 332. (1825) — name conserved | Britton: Trans. New York Acad. Sci. 9: 183. (1890) |
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