Desmodium ciliare

When sterile Desmodiums may be confused with Lespedezas. The two can be distinguished by the presence of a pair of stipules at the base of the terminal leaflet and a single stipule at the base of the lateral leaflets in Desmodium, while Lespedeza has no stipules (Grelen and Hughes 1984). Short petioles. Covered with short soft hairs. Loments with 1-3 segments. Leaflets ovate to rounded or oblong. Stipules present.

The seed is easily collected from socks and pants at the end of a summer walk through prairie. Seed germination improves with scarification, cold/dry stratification, and innoculation at planting time (Steffen 1997).

Desirable to cattle as forage. The following information is for genus Desmodium: Animals that eat its seeds: Bobwhite quail, Wild turkey. Animals that eat the plant: White-tailed deer (Martin et al. 1951).

All members of this genus are called "pain de pain pain" by the Acadians of south Louisiana. Desmodium ciliare grows in dry sandy woods, clearings and prairie remnants of Louisiana and east and southeast Texas. It ranges throughout the eastern United States. The common name tickseed and beggars-ticks come from the flat fruits that stick to clothing and animal hair.

Fields and open woods, dry sandy woods, and clearings.