Desmodium ochroleucum |
Desmodium tenuifolium |
|
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cream ticktrefoil |
slimleaf tick trefoil |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial. | Herbs, perennial. |
Stems | decumbent or prostrate, 50–100 cm, patent-villous and uncinate-puberulent. |
ascending or erect, 50–100 cm, inconspicuously uncinate-puberulent. |
Leaves | usually trifoliolate, rarely unifoliolate; stipules persistent, reflexed in age, deltate or ovate, 5–12 mm, base obliquely cordate, subamplexicaul; petiole 10–35 mm; leaflet blades ovate, ± leathery, apex obtuse or sometimes acute, surfaces prominently reticulate-veined adaxially, uncinate-puberulent on veins or glabrescent abaxially, uncinate-puberulent adaxially; terminal blade 30–75 × 22–53 mm, length 1.2–2 times width. |
trifoliolate; stipules caducous, narrowly deltate, 3 mm, glabrous; petiole 5–20 mm; leaflet blades linear, leathery, usually folded and appearing narrower, apex acute or obtuse, surfaces reticulate-veined adaxially, glabrous or sparsely puberulent abaxially, glabrous adaxially; terminal blade 30–60(–80) × 5–7 mm, length 8–10 times width. |
Inflorescences | ascending to erect, axillary distally and unbranched, sometimes also terminal and branched; rachis pilose and uncinate-puberulent; primary bracts caducous, broadly ovate, 5–6 mm. |
branched or unbranched; rachis uncinate-pubescent and villous; primary bracts ovate, 2.5 mm. |
Pedicels | 10–20 mm. |
5–10 mm. |
Flowers | calyx 3–4 mm, pilose and uncinate-puberulent, tube 1 mm; abaxial lobes 3 mm, lateral lobes 1.2–1.5 mm, to 2.5 mm in fruit; corolla white or ochroleucous, 7–8 mm. |
calyx 1.5–2 mm, uncinate-puberulent, tube 0.8–1 mm; abaxial lobes 1 mm, lateral lobes 0.7–0.8 mm; corolla pink, 4–5 mm. |
Loments | sutures deeply crenate abaxially, crenate adaxially, contorted by irregular folding of margins near or at connection between segments; connections adaxial, 1/5–1/4 as broad as segments; segments 3–5, suborbiculate to subrhombic, 7–10 × 5–8 mm, symmetrically rounded abaxially, convex adaxially, glabrous, sutures uncinate-pubescent; stipe 0 mm (or indistinctly stipitate by narrowing proximal segment). |
sutures crenate abaxially, sinuate adaxially; connections adaxial, 1/3–1/2 as broad as segments; segments (1 or)2 or 3, semiorbiculate, 3.5–5 × 3 mm, symmetrically rounded abaxially, convex adaxially, densely uncinate-puberulent throughout; stipe 0.5–3 mm. |
Desmodium ochroleucum |
Desmodium tenuifolium |
|
Phenology | Flowering summer–fall. | Flowering late summer. |
Habitat | Open woodland, roadsides. | Moist pine savannas, grass-sedge marshes, pocosins, borders, alluvial woodlands, ditches, moist ruderal areas. |
Elevation | 30–500 m. (100–1600 ft.) | 0–100 m. (0–300 ft.) |
Distribution |
AL; DC; DE; FL; GA; MD; MO; MS; NC; NJ; TN; VA |
AL; FL; GA; LA; MD; MS; NC; SC; VA
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Discussion | The range of Desmodium ochroleucum is highly fragmented, and only about a dozen populations are known. Fire suppression may have been responsible for closing the canopy in forests in which D. ochroleucum is usually found (R. W. Tyndall and P. L. Groller 2006). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Meibomia ochroleuca | Meibomia tenuifolia |
Name authority | M. A. Curtis ex Canby: Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 16: 17. (1864) | Torrey & A. Gray: Fl. N. Amer. 1: 363. (1840) |
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