Desmodium lineatum |
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sand ticktrefoil |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, often mat-forming. |
Stems | prostrate, lineate, to 100 cm, uncinate-puberulent and -pubescent, also sparsely to moderately pilose. |
Leaves | trifoliolate; stipules mostly persistent, inconspicuous, narrowly ovate, 2–5 mm; petiole 5–21 mm; leaflet blades orbiculate or broadly rhombic-ovate, apex rounded, surfaces glabrous or inconspicuously spreading-villous abaxially, glabrous adaxially; terminal blade 15–30 × 10–30 mm, length 1–1.2 times width. |
Inflorescences | densely flowered, ascending, usually terminal and branched, axillary and unbranched; rachis uncinate-puberulent; primary bracts caducous, ovate, 1–2 mm. |
Pedicels | 6–12 mm. |
Flowers | calyx 2 mm, puberulent and ± pilose, tube 1 mm; abaxial lobes 1.5 mm, lateral lobes 1 mm; corolla usually purple, rarely white, 3.5–5 mm. |
Loments | sutures deeply crenate abaxially, sinuate adaxially; connections adaxial, 1/3 as broad as segments; segments 2–4, ovate-orbiculate or obovate, 3.5–6 × 2.5–4 mm, symmetrically rounded abaxially, convex adaxially, uncinate-pubescent and pilose throughout; stipe 1–2.5 mm. |
Desmodium lineatum |
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Phenology | Flowering late summer–fall(–spring). |
Habitat | Open wood-lands, savannas, sandhills, pastures, abandoned fields. |
Elevation | 0–200 m. (0–700 ft.) |
Distribution |
AL; DC; DE; FL; GA; LA; MD; MS; NC; SC; TX; VA; WV
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Discussion | Desmodium arenicola (Vail) F. J. Hermann and Meibomia arenicola Vail are illegitimate names that pertain here. In Texas, Desmodium lineatum is known from fewer than ten counties adjacent to Louisiana. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | |
Sibling taxa | |
Synonyms | Hedysarum lineatum, Meibomia arenicola var. polymorpha, M. lineata, M. lineata var. polymorpha, M. polymorpha |
Name authority | de Candolle in A. P. de Candolle and A. L. P. P. de Candolle: Prodr. 2: 330. (1825) |
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