PULSE FAMILY LEGUMINOSAE 
POINTED-LEAVED TICK TREFOIL 
Desmodium grandiflorum (Walt.) DC. 
The Pointed-leaved Tick Trefoil is an erect perennial herb 
1-5 feet high. It is found in rich or dry woods from Quebec to 
Ontario and South Dakota, south to Oklahoma and Florida, 
and blooms from June 
to September. The 
leaves are clustered 
at the summit of the 
stem; above them 
arises the long naked 
peduncle of the in- 
florescence. The leaf- 
lets have scattered 
hairs on both sur- 
faces. 
The purple butter- 
fly-shaped flowers are 
in wide-spreading 
panicles and have an 
obovate standard and 
wing petals of the 
same shape, a straight 
keel, and 10 stamens 
of which g are united and the tenth adherent only at the base. 
The mature pod is 2 or 3-jointed and long stalked within the 
calyx. The joints are somewhat longer than broad and well 
covered with hooked hairs. 
A most striking and easily identified member of this genus is 
the Naked-flowered Tick Trefoil, Desmodium nudiflorum (L.) DC., 
common practically throughout Illinois. The leaves are crowded 
at the summit of stems that bear no flowers. The inflorescence is 
a raceme on a mostly leafless stalk or scape 24-40 inches high. The 
1-4-jointed pod is raised on a stalk many times longer than the 
calyx. . 
The Few-flowered Tick ‘Trefoil, Desmodium pauciflorum 
(Nutt.) DC., forms with D. grandiflorum and D. nudiflorum, 
above, a natural group of the genus which differs markedly from 
the other species. The flowers of D. pauciflorum are medium to 
large, on long peduncles, and the pods have conspicuous, tightly 
clinging joints. The leaves are single or two alternate. 
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