Photo credit: Center for Urban Habitats
Characteristics:
The plant is easy to ID in the field because of its long trailing stems and round leaflets. Small pink flowers appear above the green circular leaves in late summer. Each flower stem produces an inflorescence containing multiple flowers. Blooms are soft pinky-purple with maroon markings. The flowers are small but dramatic.
Habitat:
Woodlands, shady rocky areas, woods edges
Ecology:
Desmodium rotundifolium is a nitrogen fixer as well as an important source of food for wildlife. Deer browse the leaves, bobwhite, turkey and ruffled Grouse consume the seeds. It is a larval host plant for the Variegated Fritillary butterfly (Euptoieta claudia) and the Southern Cloudywing (Thorybes bathyllus).
Etymology:
The genus name Desmodium arises from the Greek word, “desmos” meaning band or chain. This describes the pea-type seedpods. The word rotundifolium comes from two Latin words, “rotund” meaning round and “folium” meaning leaf.
Desmodium rotundifolium
Round-Leaf Tick Trefoil
Family: Fabaceae
Type: Herbaceous Perennial
Height: .5’
Spread: 1’ - 4’
Bloom: Pink-Purple, July to September
Water: Medium
Sunlight: Part shade
Tolerates: Deer, drought, fire
