Kearney and Peebles 1969, Martin and Hutchins 1980
Duration: Perennial Nativity: Native Lifeform: Forb/Herb General: Stems erect to ascending, herbs or small shrubs with a woody caudex, 30 cm or taller. Leaves: Trifoliate leaves, sessile or subsessile leaflets bright green with reticulate veins, lighter green beneath but not glaucous, linear oblong to linear lanceolate, the terminal leaflet lanceolate, 5 times or more as long as wide, all densely strigose on upper surface. Flowers: In terminal or axillary racemes, simple or compound, corolla purple, pink, or white, bracts conspicuous before anthesis, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 4-7 mm long Fruits: Flat loments with several single seeded segments, subsessile or very short stipitate, indehiscent. Ecology: Found usually in dry pine woods from 4,000-8,000 ft (1219-2438 m); flowering July-September. Distribution: AZ, sw NM; south to n MEX. Notes: Distinguished by being an erect-ascending perennial to 0.75 m tall from a thickened woody base(many Desmodiums in the region do not have this combination of characters); the linear-lanceolate leaflets; the ovate to ovate-lanceolate bracts; and the sectioned fruits (loments) with either no stalk (stipe) from the location of the flower, or a small stalk (short-stipitate to sessile). Ethnobotany: There is no specific use recorded for this species, however the genus was used as an infusion to treat vomiting and colds and as a wash for sores. Etymology: Desmodium is from the Greek desmos for chain, which is a reference to the jointed seed pods, while arizonicum means of or from Arizona. Synonyms: Meibomia arizonica Editor: LCrumbacher 2011, FSCoburn 2015