NameThatPlant.net: Desmodium tenuifolium

Spermatophytes (seed plants): Angiosperms (flowering plants): Eudicots: Core Eudicots: Rosids: Fabids: Fabales

WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/24/22):
Desmodium tenuifolium FAMILY Fabaceae Go to FSUS key

Dig deeper at SERNEC, a consortium of southeastern herbaria.

Learn more about Slimleaf Tick-trefoil from the Vascular Plants of North Carolina.

SYNONYMOUS WITH PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Desmodium tenuifolium FAMILY Fabaceae

SYNONYMOUS WITH Native & naturalized Leguminosae (Fabaceae) of the US (Isely, 1998)

Desmodium tenuifolium

SYNONYMOUS WITH VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 098-26-011:

Desmodium tenuifolium FAMILY Fabaceae

SYNONYMOUS WITH Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)

Meibomia tenuifolia

COMMON NAME:
Slimleaf Tick-trefoil, Savanna Slender Tick-trefoil

To see larger pictures, click or hover over the thumbnails.

image of Desmodium tenuifolium, Slimleaf Tick-trefoil, Savanna Slender Tick-trefoil

Patrick D. McMillan pdmdtenuifolium_scotts1

May Williamsburg County SC

Inflorescence usually paniculate, pedicels 4-10mm long, petals 4-5mm long, per Vascular Flora of the Carolinas (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968).

COMPARE Beggar's Lice (Tick-trefoil) species

WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/24/22):
Desmodium tenuifolium FAMILY Fabaceae

SYNONYMOUS WITH PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Desmodium tenuifolium FAMILY Fabaceae

SYNONYMOUS WITH Native & naturalized Leguminosae (Fabaceae) of the US (Isely, 1998)
Desmodium tenuifolium

SYNONYMOUS WITH VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 098-26-011:
Desmodium tenuifolium FAMILY Fabaceae

SYNONYMOUS WITH Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)
Meibomia tenuifolia

2421

Forb
Perennial

Habitat: pine savannas, wet pine flatwoods, per Weakley's Flora

Native to the Carolinas & Georgia

Common in Coastal Plain (rare in Piedmont)

map
CLICK HERE to see a map, notes, and images from Weakley's Flora of the Southeastern US.

LEAVES:
Odd-pinnately compound: 3 leaflets
Mostly alternate

FLOWER:
Summer
Rose-purplish
Bilaterally symmetrical
2-lipped calyx
5-parted papilionaceous corolla
10 stamens, diadelphous, 9 and 1
Superior ovary

Flowers in terminal panicles

FRUIT:
Summer/Fall
Loment with 1-3 rounded segments

TO LEARN MORE about this plant, look it up in a good book!

"Any fool can destroy trees. They cannot run away; and if they could, they would still be destroyed -- chased and hunted down as long as fun or a dollar could be got out of their bark hides, branching horns, or magnificent bole backbones. Few that fell trees plant them; nor would planting avail much towards getting back anything like the noble primeval forests. ... It took more than three thousand years to make some of the trees in these Western woods -- trees that are still standing in perfect strength and beauty, waving and singing in the mighty forests of the Sierra. Through all the wonderful, eventful centuries ... God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand straining, leveling tempests and floods; but he cannot save them from fools -- only Uncle Sam can do that." — John Muir

If a search such as "Carex leptalea var. leptalea" doesn't deliver the results you want, try "Carex leptalea".
Or, to minimize chances of a misspelling, try just "Carex le".

Less is more: If "pencil flower" doesn't deliver the results you want, try "pencil".