Desmodium paniculatum var. fernaldii |
Desmodium paniculatum |
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arrow-leaf tick-trefoil, panicle tick-trefoil, panicle tickclover, panicledleaf ticktrefoil |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial; base woody, rootstock thick. | |||||
Stems | and petioles glabrous or uncinate-pubescent. |
erect or ascending, usually striate, 30–100(–150) cm, glabrous or sparsely to densely uncinate-puberulent or conspicuously pilose or glabrescent. |
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Leaves | trifoliolate; stipules caducous, subulate to narrowly ovate-deltate, 2–6 mm; petiole (10–)20–50 mm; leaflet blades polymorphic, linear, narrowly ovate, narrowly ovate-oblong, ovate, broadly ovate to subrounded, or rhombic, usually thin, rarely thick, papery, apex acute to obtuse, surfaces closely to subdensely appressed pilose, inconspicuously reticulate-veined abaxially, sparsely appressed-puberulent and pilose adaxially; terminal blade 20–100 × 8–65 mm, length 1–8 times width. |
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Leaflets | blade surfaces uncinate-puberulent on veins, sparsely strigulose abaxially. |
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Inflorescences | terminal panicles and axillary racemes, branched, very diffuse; rachis moderately to densely uncinate-puberulent to -pubescent; primary bracts narrowly ovate, 1–3.5 mm. |
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Pedicels | (3–)6–12(–20) mm. |
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Flowers | calyx 2–3 mm, pubescent, tube 1–1.5 mm; abaxial lobes 2 mm, lateral lobes 1 mm; corolla lilac to purple, 6–9 mm. |
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Loments | sutures deeply crenate or dentate abaxially, sinuate adaxially; connections adaxial, 1/5–1/3 as broad as segments; segments (2 or)3–5, deltate to rhombic, (4–)5–10 × 3–5 mm, angled abaxially (sometimes obtusely), convex adaxially, uncinate-puberulent to -pubescent; stipe 1–7 mm. |
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2n | = 22. |
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Desmodium paniculatum var. fernaldii |
Desmodium paniculatum |
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Phenology | Flowering late summer–fall. | |||||
Habitat | Open woodland, pine savannas, abandoned fields, roadsides, sandy soils. | |||||
Elevation | 0–600 m. (0–2000 ft.) | |||||
Distribution |
AL; DE; FL; GA; LA; MD; MS; NC; SC; TX; VA |
North America [Introduced in e Asia (Japan)]
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Discussion | Variety fernaldii occurs primarily on the Atlantic Coastal Plain with only scattered occurrences along the Gulf Coast. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). Desmodium paniculatum is allied with D. fernaldii, D. glabellum, and D. perplexum, and the four are called the D. paniculatum Group, which is characterized by having straight loments with 3–5 angled segments. These species have been studied intensively by B. G. Schubert (1950, 1950b) and D. Isely (1953, 1983b, 1990, 1998). According to Isely (1990, 1998), D. paniculatum intergrades with both D. perplexum and D. glabellum, resulting in a continuum of variation among the members of the D. paniculatum Group that suggests introgression, including: D. paniculatum × D. perplexum; D. paniculatum × D. glabellum; and D. glabellum × D. perplexum. They are treated here as varieties of a single polymorphic species. The varieties are distinguished by somewhat continuous or overlapping characters. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. | ||||
Parent taxa | ||||||
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Synonyms | D. fernaldii | Hedysarum paniculatum, Meibomia paniculata | ||||
Name authority | (B. G. Schubert) H. Ohashi: J. Jap. Bot. 88: 171. (2013) | (Linnaeus) de Candolle in A. P. de Candolle and A. L. P. P. de Candolle: Prodr. 2: 329. (1825) | ||||
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