Tick Trefoil.Desmodium nudiflorum.
Found on sandbanks and in dry shade in July.
The root sends up a flower-stem, pale, slender and about 2 feet in height, and a stout, woody leaf-stem which is shorter, and gray.
The 3 leaflets of the compound leaf are broad-oval, entire, with many ribs and veins showing in the thin, somewhat papery texture, that is rough and dry to the touch; the color is grayish-green, paler underneath. Three or four leaves on their long strong stems are close set, one above the other, in an apparent whorl upon the summit of the short stem already described. Leaves occur also upon the flower-stems.
The flower is small; the upper petal is notched at the tip, and much turned back; the 4 others are caught by thread-like bases in the shallow 5-parted calyx; they are a clear lilac and white, the upper petal being marked with two purple patches; the calyx is pale reddish. The flowers on red foot-stems are arranged in little groups in a long spire upon the long stem which rises from the root.
One flower only blooms at a time. A tiny pointed leaf, or bract, as long as the calyx, is folded over the bud, but falls when the petals expand.