Duration: Annual Nativity: Native Lifeform: Forb/Herb General: Erect or ascending, moderately to much branched, annual forb 10-45 cm tall, stems and branches slender but deeply grooved, terete or subangulate, sparsely to densely uncinate-puberulent. Leaves: Stipules slenderly linear-lanceolate, attenuate, 1.5-6 mm. long, minutely striate, glabrous above and below but ciliate-hispid along margins. Petioles slender, grooved, .5-5 cm long; leaflets 3, linear-lanceolate to ovate, obtuse and mucronulate at apex, 2-21 mm wide, 1.5-6 cm long, terminal ones similar in shape, light green and sparsely strigose to glabrate above, slightly paler and sparsely strigose beneath. Flowers: Inflorescence 10 cm long, pedicels filiform, 7-12 mm long, calyx small, purplish-pink to white, about 2-2.5 mm long, corolla about 2.5-3 mm long. Fruits: Loment 2-5 jointed, sessile or faintly stipitate, joints rhomboidal, reticulate and uncinate-hispidulous, 2.5-3 mm wide, 3-4 mm long, margins slightly folded or revolute, terminal joint slightly larger than others. Ecology: Found on mountainsides, mesas, canyons and grassy slopes from 3,500-6,000 ft (1067-1829 m); flowers July-September. Ethnobotany: Many non-regional medicinal uses for other species. Etymology: Desmodium might come from the Greek desmos meaning bond, fastening or chain, referring to the loment, while neomexicanum means New Mexico where the type was found in the late 1800s. Synonyms: Meibomia neomexicana Editor: SBuckley, 2010