LONG-LEAF TICK-CLOVER
File Size: 36 KB
 
Desmodium cuspidatum   (Muhl. ex Willd.) DC. ex  Loud.
Cherokee County, Kansas
Perennial
Height: 20-80 inches
Family: Fabaceae - Bean Family
Flowering Period:   July, August, September
Stems: Erect, simple or branched, glabrous or sparsely uncinate-puberulent.
Leaves: Alternate, odd-pinnately compound; petiole 1.6 to 4 inches; stipules lanceolate, .4 to .8 inch long, .04 to .08 inch wide, apex acuminate; leaflets 3; blades ovate to lanceolate, base rounded to cuneate, apex acute to acuminate, margins entire, surfaces glabrous or sparsely pubescent or uncinate-puberulent, veins of abaxial surface not conspicuously raised; terminal leaflet 2 to 4.8 inches long, 1 to 2.8 inches wide; lateral leaflets 1.6 to 4.8 inches long, .6 to 2 inches wide.
Inflorescences: Racemes, terminal and axillary, simple or sometimes branched; axis uncinate-puberulent; bracts ovate, .25 to .5 inch. Pedicels .08 to .3 inch.
Flowers: Papilionaceous; calyx cup-shaped, .16 to .24 inch; corolla lavender to pink with lighter pair of spots at base of banner, .3 to .4 inch; stamens 10, diadelphous; style glabrous.
Fruits: Loments, straight; segments 3-4, triangular to rhombic in outline, margins rounded to obtusely angled abaxially, rounded to obtusely angled adaxially, .28 to .43 inch long, .16 to .2 inch wide; stipe .08 to .2 inch; seeds 1 per segment, flattened, .16 to .18 inch, smooth.
Habitat: Maple-basswood and oak-hickory forests and woodlands, river and stream banks, glades, bluffs, old fields, and pastures.
Distribution: East 1/3 of Kansas
Origin: Native
Comments: Desmodium, like a chain, alluding to the jointed legumes and cuspidatum, pointed, alluding to the leaflets. The seeds are distributed when the loments cling to passing animals.
Long-leaf tick-clover loment
39 KB
Cherokee County, Kansas
Long-leaf tick-clover loment
39 KB
Cherokee County, Kansas
Long-leaf tick-clover leaf
66 KB
Cherokee County, Kansas