Creeping Tick Trefoil
Desmodium triflorum
Summary 4
Desmodium triflorum is an ornamental plant in the Fabaceae family. It is native to Florida, Hawaii, and some small areas of other southern states of the United States. It is a creeper, a vine that grows along the ground as opposed to growing up trees or buildings. It has three leaves with smooth edges and a white stripe up the middle, ranging from a bright white to a barely visible grey stripe, depending on the nutrients...
Description 5
General: Threeflower ticktrefoil as described by B.C. Stone (1970) is a “Creeping herb; much-branched, somewhat mat-forming; leaves of 3 leaflets, the lower leaves sometimes unifoliolate; leaflets obovate, to obcordate, rounded and emarginate at tip, mostly less than 1 cm long, up to 9 mm wide, sometimes with 2 white marks; flowers few in fascicles, opposite leaves, pedicels 3-8 mm long, lengthening in fruit to just over 1 cm; puberulent; corolla reddish-violet or pale pink, standard obovate, 4-5 mm long; pods up to 17 mm long, about 2.3 mm broad, 3-7-jointed, indehiscent.”
Distribution: Threeflower ticktrefoil is native to the Old World tropics and subtropics. Currently, it is pantropical, extending northward to Florida. For current distribution, please consult the Plant Profile page for this species on the PLANTS Web site.
Habitat: Threeflower ticktrefoil’s habitat is described by A.C. Smith, W.L. Wagner and W.A. Whistler. In Hawai'i, it is “naturalized and common in dry, disturbed sites near the coast and on dry slopes and lava flows, also in lawns, pastures, waste places and along roadsides, 6-1,443 ft". In Fiji, it is “abundantly naturalized at elevations from near sea level to 1,968 ft in lawns, waste places, and villages, on grassy hillsides, and along roadsides and forest tracks". It is “common in lawns and other disturbed places".
Distribution 6
Distribution: Pakistan, Kashmir (R.R.Stewart, Ann.Cat.Vasc.Pl.Pak.Kashm. 403.1972), India, Burma, Nepal, Sikkim, China (Formosa, Canton, Hong Kong, Yunnan, Hainan), Malaysia, Siam, Indonesia, Borneo, Philippines, Papua, Australia (Queensland); Polynesia, Fiji, Samoa, New Caledonia, S.Tropical America and Tropical Africa.
Habitat 7
Comments: Ruderal areas, a lawn weed, also in disturbed, open woodlands (Isely, 1990).
Flowers and fruting 8
During rains and early winter
Sources and Credits
- (c) Jkadavoor (Jee), some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/jkadavoor/5463709841/
- (c) Satish Nikam, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/wwwssncomphotos/29463274156/
- (c) Susan J. Hewitt, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Susan J. Hewitt
- Adapted by Chandan Pandey from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmodium_triflorum
- Public Domain, http://eol.org/data_objects/1382642
- (c) Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/4969865
- (c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/29010482
- (c) Chandan Pandey, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
