Perplexing Tick Trefoil,
Desmodium perplexum
Fabaceae or Pea Family
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Moderate plant, about 3 feet tall, with alternate (not opposite) leaves;
each leaf with three egg-shaped leaflets. Small, pink,
pea-like irregular flowers with two yellowish "eyes" in crowded clusters. Fruit a
pea pod, but cleft into two to five joints.
.Occasional along the edges of the woodlands. Tick trefoils are easily recognized by their long stalks of small colorful flowers, three-parted leaves and deep clefts between the seeds in the seedpod. Pointed-leaved tick trefoil (Desmodium glutinosum) has smaller flowers without "eyes", whorled, pointed leaves, and usually only 2 joints of the seedpod. It also likes shadier woods. |
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