Kearney and Peebles 1969, McDougall 1973, USDA, NRCS 2012
Duration: Perennial Nativity: Native Lifeform: Forb/Herb General: Herbaceous perennials, stems diffuse to prostrate or trailing, to 1 m long, herbage pubescent to pilose, the hairs appressed to spreading, plants herbaceous to suffrutescent. Leaves: Alternate, trifoliate, leaflets oblong-lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate to ovate, margins entire, surfaces with distinct net-veins (reticulate), blades petiolate with evident stipules, stipules triangulate to to lanceolate or foliaceous. Flowers: Pink to purple or rarely white, with banner, wing, and keel petals (papilionaceous), petals clawed, banner obovoid to ovate, wing petals with obtuse to rounded tips, keel not beaked, also with obtuse to rounded tips, calyx bilabiate, the upper lip bifid, the lower lip tridentate, surfaces hairy, stamens 9-10, floral bracts absent to inconspicuous borne terminal or axillary, in simple to compound racemes, these on conspicuous peduncles. Fruits: Flattened pods of indehiscent segments, segments 3-10, each segment 3 mm long or less, these normally not contorted, surface glabrous to puberulent, borne on a short stipe. Seeds olive, brown, or black, kidney-shaped (reniform), 1 per segment. Ecology: Unknown Distribution: Arizona; Mexico. Notes: Ecology data was elusive for this species. Kearney and Peebles note that the joints of the pods stick tightly to clothing and to the hair of animals. Good identifiers for this species are the perennial habit, the diffuse or procumbent stems, the trifoliate leaves with oblong-lanceolate to ovate leaflets, and the fruit segments which are 3 mm long or less, not contorted. Ethnobotany: There is no use recorded for this species, but other species in this genus have uses. Etymology: Desmodium is from the Greek desmos for chain, which is a reference to the jointed seed pods, while retinens is Latin for confining or delaying. Synonyms: Desmodium wislizeni, Meibomia retinens Editor: LCrumbacher 2012