Desmodium tortuosum(Sw.) DC.

dixie ticktrefoil

WFO wfo-0000177471 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Desmodium tortuosum, photographed by 雲一百香果
fig. a 雲一百香果, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-11 / obs. 205108769
Desmodium tortuosum, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. b Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 187458251
Desmodium tortuosum, photographed by 葉子
fig. c 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 184800146
Desmodium tortuosum, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. d Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 180037537
Desmodium tortuosum, photographed by 葉子
fig. e 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 179914165
Desmodium tortuosum, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. f Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 176574397
Desmodium tortuosum, photographed by 葉子
fig. g 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 178012427
Desmodium tortuosum, photographed by 雲一百香果
fig. h 雲一百香果, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 156816686

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 36 botanical countries

Regions where Desmodium tortuosum is native: Alabama, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Cayman Is., Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is. AlabamaMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NortheastArgentina NorthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaDominican RepublicEcuadorEl SalvadorGuatemalaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPeruPuerto RicoTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela BahamasCayman Is.Leeward Is.Venezuelan AntillesWindward Is.
Native distribution of Desmodium tortuosum, 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
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Argentina Northwest AGW
Bahamas BAH
Belize BLZ
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Cayman Is. CAY
Colombia CLM
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
Guatemala GUA
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Venezuelan Antilles VNA
Windward Is. WIN
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

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.

Flowering 35 in flower of 79 examined

Peak flowering in Aug. Each bar is the share of Desmodium tortuosum observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 35 of 79 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 4 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 12 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 physocarpos Vogel
  • Desmodium pulcherrimum Shuttlew. ex Griseb.
  • Desmodium purpureum (Mill.) Fawc. & Rendle
  • Desmodium stipulaceum DC.
  • Desmodium tortuosum var. hirtellum DC.
  • Hedysarum purpureum Mill.
  • Hedysarum stipulaceum Sessé ex DC.
  • Hedysarum tortuosum Sw.
  • Meibomia physocarpa (Vogel) Kuntze
  • Meibomia purpurea (Mill.) Vail
  • Meibomia stipulacea (DC.) Kuntze
  • Meibomia tortuosa (Sw.) Kuntze

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.