Desmodium tortuosum (Sw.) DC.

Dixie Tick Trefoil

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Dixie Tick Trefoil is an introduced herbaceous perennial in the Bean family (Fabaceae). It is native to the Caribbean and tropical America. In Alabama it can be found primarily in the southern half of the state. Dixie Tick Trefoil occurs in row crops, around the edges of fields and pastures, on roadsides, along railroads, and in other disturbed habitats. It is a perennial with a tap root. Stems are erect, 4-8 feet in height, green or purple-red in color, and pubescent with hooked hairs. Leaves are alternate, petiolate (the petiole grooved on the upper side), pinnately 3-foliate, with large, papery, ovate-triangular stipules. The leaflets are ovate to ovate-lanceolate in outline, entire, and pubescent on both surfaces with hooked hairs. The terminal leaflet is larger than the lateral leaflets. The flowers are produced in terminal and axillary racemes. The small papilionaceous flowers are blue-mauve, pink, or blue-green in color. The fruit is a segmented legume breaking into one-seeded segments. The segments are equally rounded above and below. The fruit are covered in hooked hairs that adhere to clothing and fur. Dixie Tick Trefoil is sometimes cultivated as a green manure or forage. It is considered an invasive species in the United States, and is often a major weed of row crops.—A. Diamond

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Not Native

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