Hoary Tick-Trefoil

(Desmodium canescens)

 

   

 

 

Color Photographs: Copyright Nearctica.com, Inc.

Line Drawing: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, Second Edition.

 

Hoary Tick-Trefoil (Desmodium canescens [L.] DC.)

Identification: Plant erect and heavily branched. Flowers pink to lavender, pealike, sparsely arranged along the flower stem. Lower petals elongate and projecting. Upper standard with two dark edged yellow spots. Flower stalks arising from the leaf axils. Stem finely hairy, often sticky. Leaves hairy, arranged alternately along the stem. Leaves with 3 leaflets, ovate, elongate, and pubescent. Junction of leaf petiole and stem with 2 large, leaflike bracts. Plant 3 to 5 feet in height.

Distribution: Wisconsin in the west and Ontario and Massachusetts in the east, southward to Florida and Texas.

Habitat: Hoary Tick-Trefoil is found in a variety of woodland types.

Flowering period: July to September.

Similar Species: Hoary Tick-Trefoil is most likely to be confused with Large-bracted Tick-Trefoil. However the stems and leaves of Hoary Tick-Trefoil are finely hairy (pubescent), and sometimes sitcky. Hoary Tick-Trefoil is much more heavily branched than Large-bracted Tick-Trefoil.

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