Desmodium viridiflorum(L.) DC.

velvetleaf ticktrefoil

WFO wfo-0000170520 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Desmodium viridiflorum, photographed by stephen
fig. a stephen, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-09-08 / obs. 156175084
Desmodium viridiflorum, photographed by Annika Lindqvist
fig. b Annika Lindqvist, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 154984280
Desmodium viridiflorum, photographed by Alan Weakley
fig. c Alan Weakley, CC0 1.0 / obs. 18587882
Desmodium viridiflorum, photographed by Michael Ellis
fig. d Michael Ellis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 8461765
Desmodium viridiflorum, photographed by Joseph McPhail
fig. e Joseph McPhail, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204282649
Desmodium viridiflorum, photographed by Joseph McPhail
fig. f Joseph McPhail, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204263684
Desmodium viridiflorum, photographed by harrier
fig. g harrier, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203986551
Desmodium viridiflorum, photographed by Rob John
fig. h Rob John, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 196629988

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 15 botanical countries

Regions where Desmodium viridiflorum is native: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia AlabamaArkansasFloridaGeorgiaIllinoisKentuckyLouisianaMarylandMississippiNorth CarolinaSouth CarolinaTennesseeTexasVirginia Delaware
Native distribution of Desmodium viridiflorum, 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
North Carolina NCA
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Virginia VRG

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 2 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.

  • Hedysarum viridiflorum L.
  • Meibomia viridiflora 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.