Desmodium incanum (Sw.) DC.

  • Authority

    Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.

  • Family

    Fabaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Desmodium incanum (Sw.) DC.

  • Description

    Species Description - Decumbent or ascending subshrub to 1 m long, many-branched from a woody base. Leaves trifoliolate; leaflets 3-9 x 0.8-3.8 cm, elliptic, ovate, oblong, or lanceolate, chartaceous, puberulent, especially on lower surface, the apex mucronulate, acute to obtuse, the base obtuse to rounded, the margins entire; petioles 0.7-3 cm long; stipules ovate to lanceolate, 6-10 mm long, persistent; stipels awl-shaped, minute. Pseudoracemes terminal, few-flowered, 10- 18 cm long, pubescent; bracts minute, persistent. Calyx nearly bell-shaped, 2.5-3 mm long, pubescent; corolla pink to pinkish purple, the standard ovate, 5-6 mm long, the wings and keel as long as the standard. Legume 2-4 cm long, of 5-8 fertile segments, puberulent, notched only along one suture. Seed 1 per segment, 2.5-3.5 mm long, oblong-elliptic, light brown.

    Distribution and Ecology - Common in understory of woodlands and in open disturbed areas. Solomon Bay (A2291), East End (A2785). Also on St. Croix, St. Thomas, Tortola, and Virgin Gorda; a pantropical species

  • Discussion

    Hedysarum canum J.F. GmeL, Syst. Nat. 2: 1124. 1791, nom. illegit. Desmodium canum (J.F. GmeL) Schinz & Thell. in Schellenb., Schinz & ThelL, Mem. Soc. Sci. Nat. Neuchatel 5: 371. 1913.

    Hedysarum supinum Sw., Prodr. 106. 1788, non VilL, 1779. Meibomia supina (Sw.) Britton, Ann. New York Acad. Sci. 7: 83. 1892