Prostrate Tick-Trefoil

(Desmodium rotundifolium)

 

   

 

 

Color photograph: Homer D. House. 1918. Wildflowers of New York.

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

 

Prostrate Tick-Trefoil (Desmodium rotundifolium DC.)

Identification: Plant on the ground, trailing. Flowers pealike, lavender to violet, with lower petals combined to form an elongate, projecting structure. Flowers sparsely spaced on a single flower stem. Seedpods segmented with multiple segments, hairy. Stem slightly hairy. Leaves with 3 leaflets, each leaflet large, round.

Distribution: Michigan in the west to New England in the east, southward to Florida and Texas.

Habitat: Prostrate Tick-Trefoil is found in dry woods.

Flowering period: July to September.

Similar Species: The prostrate habit of the species and the large, round leaflets are distinctive features of Prostrate Tick-Trefoil.

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