About Desmodium strictum (Pursh) DC.
Desmodium strictum (Pursh) DC. is an erect, perennial herb that reaches 0.5 to 1.2 meters in height. Its stems range from sparsely to densely covered in hooked (uncinate) puberulence and short pubescence, and often become nearly hairless (glabrous) toward the base. Its leaves are trifoliolate, with terminal leaflets that are linear to narrowly oblong, typically measuring 3–7 cm long, and 6–10 times longer than they are wide. Leaf surfaces are mostly glabrate or minutely puberulent, with sparse short pubescence along the veins on the lower leaf surface, and display fine reticulate venation. Its stipules are linear-subulate, 2–4 mm long, and early deciduous; its stipels are persistent. Inflorescences are typically terminal panicles, densely covered in uncinate puberulence, with pedicels measuring (4) 6–11 mm long. Calyces are densely puberulent and sparsely short-pubescent; petals are purplish and 3–5 mm long. Stamens are diadelphous. Fruits are stipitate loments, with 1–3 suborbicular to weakly obovate segments. Each segment is 4–6 mm long and 3–4 mm wide, with the upper suture slightly concave or indented. Segments are densely covered in uncinate-puberulence on both surfaces and along their sutures. The fruit stipe is 1–2 mm long, approximately the same length as the calyx, but shorter than the remaining staminal remnants. This species is distributed from southern New Jersey to southern Florida, and west to western Louisiana. It grows in longleaf pine sandhills and other dry woodlands. Desmodium strictum flowers from July through August, and fruits from August to October. It does not produce a hard seed coat, so it cannot form long-term persistent seed banks. Its seeds germinate readily within one year after dispersal. It thrives in habitats burned frequently at 1 to 2 year intervals, and performs best under winter and spring burn regimes.
