Biorepository Data Portal

Dr. David Bolger, USDA PLANTS, Kearney and Peebles 1969

Duration: Perennial Nativity: Native Lifeform: Forb/Herb General: Herbaceous perennials, to 1 m tall, stems erect or ascending, solid, woody below or from a woody crown or caudex, surfaces of stems or young twigs glabrous or sparsely glabrate, plants with taproots and nodules. Leaves: Alternate, pinnately 3-foliolate, odd pinnate, or rarely simple or appearing so, leaflets opposite, margins entire, surfaces glabrous or nearly so, or hairy on one or both surfaces, blades petiolate, stipules present, absent, or inconspicuous at base of leaflets, green, triangulate to lanceolate or foliaceous, sometimes caducous (falling early) or deciduous. Flowers: Blue, lavender to purple, or violet, zygomorphic, papilionaceous, petals clawed, banner petals ovoid or obovate, wing petals narrow, oblanceolate to oblong, wing tips obtuse or rounded, keel tips obtuse or rounded, not beaked, calyx 2-lipped or 2-lobed, hairy, stamens 9-10, diadelphous, with 9 united and 1 free, filaments glabrous, styles terete, bracts very small, absent or caducous, bracteoles present, inflorescences of axillary or terminal racemes or panicles. Fruits: Loments, jointed, separating into articles, stipitate, unilocular, indehiscent, elongate, straight, exserted from calyx, compressed between seeds, hairy, 3-10 seeded. Seeds ovoid to rounded in outline, reniform, surfaces smooth, olive, brown, or black in Ecology: Found around 3,500 ft (1067 m); flowering August-October. Distribution: Arizona, New Mexico, Texas; Mexico. Notes: Distinguished from all other Desmodium by its lack of trifoliate leaves, this plant has simple leaves instead. Ethnobotany: Unknown, but other species in the genus have uses; infusion of plant taken to cause vomiting for bad lung cold. Etymology: Unknown. Synonyms: Desmodium wrightii, Meibomia psilophylla Editor: LCrumbacher2012