Desmodium laevigatum(Nutt.) DC.

smooth ticktrefoil

WFO wfo-0000170502 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Desmodium laevigatum, photographed by Samuel A Schmid, PhD, PWS
fig. a Samuel A Schmid, PhD, PWS, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-09-24 / obs. 159406409
Desmodium laevigatum, photographed by Emily Summerbell
fig. b Emily Summerbell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 141827029
Desmodium laevigatum, photographed by cwarneke
fig. c cwarneke, CC0 1.0 / obs. 11412965
Desmodium laevigatum, photographed by cwarneke
fig. d cwarneke, CC0 1.0 / obs. 11395370
Desmodium laevigatum, photographed by Thomas Koffel
fig. e Thomas Koffel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 131842280
Desmodium laevigatum, photographed by John Kees
fig. f John Kees, CC0 1.0 / obs. 204028547
Desmodium laevigatum, photographed by Will McFarland
fig. g Will McFarland, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 162651414
Desmodium laevigatum, photographed by Katie Kucera
fig. h Katie Kucera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 170595481

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 20 botanical countries

Regions where Desmodium laevigatum is native: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia AlabamaArkansasFloridaGeorgiaIllinoisKentuckyLouisianaMarylandMississippiMissouriNew YorkNorth CarolinaOklahomaPennsylvaniaSouth CarolinaTennesseeTexasVirginiaWest Virginia Delaware
Native distribution of Desmodium laevigatum, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Arkansas ARK
Delaware DEL
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Kentucky KTY
Louisiana LOU
Maryland MRY
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
Oklahoma OKL
Pennsylvania PEN
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 7 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Desmodium laevigatum var. monophyllum Alph.Wood
  • Desmodium rhombifolium (Elliott) DC.
  • Hedysarum laevigatum Nutt.
  • Hedysarum rhombifolium Elliott
  • Meibomia laevigata Kuntze
  • Meibomia laevigata var. monophylla (Alph.Wood) Vail
  • Meibomia rhombifolia (Elliott) Vail

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.