:''The ''Desmodium incanum'' of many older sources is actually ''

Desmodium laxiflorum ''Desmodium'' is a genus of plants in the legume family Fabaceae, sometimes called tick-trefoil, tick clover, hitch hikers or beggar lice. There are dozens of species and the delimitation of the genus has shifted much over time. These are mostly ...

''; see below.'' ''Desmodium incanum'', also known as creeping beggarweed, Spanish clover, Spanish tick-trefoil or hitchhikers is a perennial plant native to

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

. In

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

it is known as kaimi or kaimi clover from the Hawaiian for ("the seeker"). Initially introduced as forage crop around the world, it has spread to many places although it is no longer an important fodder crop. It is considered a weed both within and outside its native range. It has spread through Florida and across the southern USA into southern Texas and across many

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

islands, including Hawaii. The plant has branched runners for reproduction. Its leaves are

elliptic In mathematics, an ellipse is a plane curve surrounding two focal points, such that for all points on the curve, the sum of the two distances to the focal points is a constant. It generalizes a circle, which is the special type of ellipse in ...

in shape and are hairy, and its flowers are pink to rose in color. Very frustrating in agriculture are its seedpods, which when ripe easily break off from the plant. They are also covered in sticky hairs (trichomes) that stick to any rough surface such as skin and hairs of animals and clothing thus aiding spreading. ''D. incanum'' is valuable for its ability to fix Nitrogen and thus increase soil fertility, thus it is commonly used as an intercrop. There has been long-standing confusion about the correct

scientific name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

. This was long held to be ''Desmodium canum'', and therefore for quite some time ''D. incanum'' was believed to be the correct name for the plant today called ''

''.ILDIS (2005) Starr-130806-0429-Desmodium incanum-lots of burs stuck to pants-Piiholo-Maui (24891884269).jpg Desmodium incanum (Fabaceae).jpeg

Footnotes

References

* (2005)
Genus ''Desmodium''
Version 10.01, November 2005. Retrieved 2007-DEC-17.

External links

*

incanum Flora of Mexico Flora of South America {{Faboideae-stub