244 . LEGUMINOSAE (PULSE FAMILY} 



clinging to anything they touch, even a bare hand, and in fleeces 

 they are very adhesive, carrying strands of wool with them when 

 removed. Ticky wool is therefore sharply "cut" in the market. 



Stem erect, slightly ridged and grooved, sometimes attaining five 

 feet in height but more often two or three feet tall, smooth below 

 but the growing branches densely set with two kinds of hairs, some 

 very short, fine, and hooked, others longer, spreading, and glutinous. 

 Leaves large, trifoliolate, the leaflets broadly ovate, two to four 

 inches long, the terminal one with a footstalk and larger than the 

 lateral pair, rough-hairy on the upper surface, white-hairy and net- 

 veined beneath ; petioles hairy and about as long as the leaves ; 

 stipules heart-shaped, acute, persistent. Flowers in terminal com- 

 pound racemes, very small, less than a quarter-inch in length, 

 purple, the standard obovate and the wings attached to the short, 

 blunt keel by a small transverse appendage. Pods four- to seven- 

 seeded, constricted between the seeds above and below but most so 

 on the under side, the joints longer than broad, net-veined, sticky, 

 hairy, readily separating and adhering to anything at a touch. 



Means of control 



Close cutting while in early bloom, repeating the treatment as 

 new shoots appear. Cultivation of the ground destroys the 

 perennial roots. 



SHOWY TICK-TREFOIL 



Desmodium canadense, DC. 

 (Meibbmia canadensis, Ktze.) 



Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom: July to September. 



Seed-time: Late August to November. 



Range: New Brunswick to the Saskatchewan, southward to the 



Carolinas and Oklahoma. 

 Habitat: Woodland borders and thickets along streams. 



Stem two to six feet tall, stout, erect, ridged and grooved, very 

 hairy. Leaflets oblong-ovate, nearly smooth above, finely ap- 

 pressed hairy beneath, obtuse, with numerous nearly straight veins ; 

 petioles very short, the uppermost leaves nearly sessile. Flowers 

 in large panicled racemes, densely many-flowered, very showy; 



