Desmodium uncinatum(Jacq.) DC.

Hawai'i ticktrefoil

WFO wfo-0000177526 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Desmodium uncinatum, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. a Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-06-05 / obs. 203440387
Desmodium uncinatum, photographed by Brendan McIntyre
fig. b Brendan McIntyre, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194842688
Desmodium uncinatum, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. c Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 188441853
Desmodium uncinatum, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. d Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 182958341
Desmodium uncinatum, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. e Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 182964873
Desmodium uncinatum, photographed by Manuel Roncal
fig. f Manuel Roncal, CC0 1.0 / obs. 176384936
Desmodium uncinatum, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. g Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 173382000
Desmodium uncinatum, photographed by Skjold Søndergaard
fig. h Skjold Søndergaard, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 163980351

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 26 botanical countries

Regions where Desmodium uncinatum is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Galápagos, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NortheastArgentina NorthwestBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorEl SalvadorGuatemalaHondurasNicaraguaParaguayPeruUruguayVenezuela Galápagos
Native distribution of Desmodium uncinatum, 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
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
Galápagos GAL
Guatemala GUA
Honduras HON
Nicaragua NIC
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Uruguay URU
Venezuela VEN
Mexico Central MXC NORTHERN AMERICA
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 217 in flower of 258 examined

Peak flowering in Apr. Each bar is the share of Desmodium uncinatum 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. 217 of 258 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 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 16 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 hjalmarsonii (Schindl.) Standl.
  • Desmodium intortum var. pilosiusculum (DC.) Fosberg
  • Desmodium pilosiusculum DC.
  • Desmodium sandwicense E.Mey.
  • Desmodium sinclairii Benth.
  • Desmodium uncinatum var. gracile Burkart
  • Desmodium uncinatum var. uncinatum
  • Hedysarum adhaerens Vahl
  • Hedysarum mexicanum Sweet
  • Hedysarum uncinatum Jacq.
  • Hedysarum virgatum Cerv. ex Sweet
  • Meibomia hjalmarsonii Schindl.
  • Meibomia limensis var. pilosiuscula (DC.) Schindl.
  • Meibomia pilosiuscula (DC.) Hochr.
  • Meibomia sinclairii (Benth.) Schindl.
  • Meibomia uncinata (Jacq.) 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. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol DESA81. public domain. 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.