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Fabaceae family

Nakedflower Ticktrefoil Desmodium nudiflorum

Native

Nakedflower Ticktrefoil is a perennial wildflower native to Canada and the lower 48 states. It blooms Jul – Aug.

More about this plant

Hylodesmum nudiflorum, the naked-flowered tick trefoil, panicled leaf tick trefoil or stemless tick trefoil, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to eastern North America. The species is perennial, and is typically found in mature, open woodlands in a variety of soils, preferring those with substantial organic content. It requires a humid climate, and can withstand extremes in temperature, precipitation, and wind. Wikipedia →

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
Hardiness
≥ zone 5 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Lifespan
Perennial
In the garden
Herb layer — Sits in the herb of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
Nitrogen fixer — Fixes atmospheric nitrogen through root-nodule bacteria — builds soil fertility for itself and its neighbours, cutting fertiliser need.Open guide →
derived roles
The garden year bloom → fruit → fall colour
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Bloom
Bloom (the flower's colour)
Bloom · Jul – Aug — 174 obs · Herbarium specimens — Park et al. 2023 (CC BY 4.0)
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts ~17 caterpillar species

Desmodium supports ~17 caterpillar species.

Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a moderate genus.

Recorded feeding on Desmodium in North America, including:

Achalarus lyciades · Hoary Edge ✦ Epargyreus clarus · skipper butterfly ✦ Thorybes pylades · Northern Cloudywing ✦ Agonopterix pergandeella · concealer moth Brenthia pavonacella · Peacock Brenthia Caloptilia violacella · leaf-blotch miner moth
+ 8 more species →
Cosmopterix lespedezae · cosmet moth Cosmopterix magophila · cosmet moth Dichomeris acuminatus · twirler moth Everes comyntas · gossamer-winged butterfly Exelastis pumilio · plume moth Grapholita fana · leafroller moth Helicoverpa zea · Corn Earworm Heliothis virescens · Tobacco Budworm
Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0). ✦ = recorded on this exact species.
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
Frequently grows with

Across 282 U.S. vegetation-survey plots that recorded Nakedflower Ticktrefoil, these catalog species turned up most often in the same plot — a real field co-occurrence signal, not a planting prescription.

Red Maple · 92% Flowering Dogwood · 81% White Oak · 78% Blackgum · 76% Pignut Hickory · 72% Tuliptree · 71% Northern Red Oak · 71% Cat Greenbrier · 71%
By region — what it grows with near you
"%" = share of this plant's plots that also held the species. From sPlotOpen → (Sabatini et al. 2021, CC BY 4.0) — open vegetation plots: wild community composition, not garden design.
Sources for this entry (15) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — native status
[06] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
[07] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[09] Conservation rank — NatureServe Explorer (CC BY)
[10] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[11] Nitrogen fixation — Werner et al. 2014 (Dryad, CC0)
[13] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[14] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
Spot an error or have a better photo? Every field links to its source, and the whole dataset is open.
Cite this page Open data, please attribute

PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

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