Pic(k) of the Week: Tick clover, pondside

A small wildflower with a big name: panicled leaf tick trefoil.

Seen blooming on a bank of Postal Pond in Legacy Park: City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 12 September 2024.

Is the trefoil a late-summer blossom or an early-autumn-er? You decide.

Hylodesmum is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, sometimes called ticktrefoils or tick-trefoils. It is sometimes treated as part of Desmodium. It includes sixteen species native to eastern North America, sub-Saharan Africa, and southeast Asia.

Hylodesmum nudiflorum — previously known as Desmodium nudiflorum and commonly known as naked-flowered tick trefoil, panicled leaf tick trefoil, stemless tick trefoil, or naked-stemmed tick clover— is a species of perenial flowering plant in the legume family (Fabaceae), native to eastern North America. Hylodesmum nudiflorum is typically found in mature, open hardwood woodlands in moist, sandy, gravelly, or loamy soil with high organic content. It is a nitrogen-fixing species through symbiosis with soil-borne bacteria.

Hylodesmum nudiflorum's delicate pinkish blooms, ⅓-inch (0.8 cm), are sweetly fragrant, occurring mid to late summer, borne on leafless stems. Reminiscent of pea-like blooms, the flowers have a rounded upper petal and three narrower lower petals, longer than the upper.

— North Carolina Cooperative Extension.
— Wildflowers of the United States.
— Wikipedia.

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• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of images posted on Saturdays.
• Photo 39 of 52, for year 2024. See a larger, hi-res version on Flickr: here.
• Commercial reproduction requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.


• Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10 II.
• Lens: Olympus M.40-150mm F4.0-5.6 R
• Settings: 150 mm; 1/500sec; ISO 800; ƒ/5.6


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