Clustered-Leaved Tick-Trefoil

Hylodesmum glutinosum, the clustered-leaved tick trefoil, is a perennial legume in the family Fabaceae native to eastern North America, ranging from southern Ontario and Quebec south through the eastern United States to the Gulf Coast states. The species grows in mesic to dry deciduous forests, woodland borders, and shaded slopes, often in nutrient-rich soils associated with calcareous substrates. It produces distinctive trifoliate leaves in a whorled cluster near the top of the stem, with the leaflets being large and broadly ovate to triangular. Small pink to purple pea-type flowers are borne in a long terminal raceme and produce segmented loments (fruit pods that break apart at seed maturity), which are covered in hooked hairs that adhere to clothing and animal fur for seed dispersal—the origin of the 'tick trefoil' common name. The species has not been formally evaluated by the IUCN. Like other Hylodesmum and Desmodium species, it forms symbiotic associations with nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria and provides habitat and forage for native bees and other pollinators.