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Key to Desmodium, Key B: Desmodium with trailing stems or stoloniferous-rhizomatous habit

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1 Flowers in axillary clusters; leaflets broadly obovate, 0.5-1 cm long  Grona triflora

1 Flowers in axillary or terminal racemes; leaflets rotund, broadly ovate, broadly elliptic, or narrowly elliptic, the larger > 1 cm long.

Show caption*© Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)   2 Loments linear, ca. 1.5 mm wide, the sinuses symmetrical above and below, only slightly constricted relative to the width of the loment  Desmodium scorpiurus

2 Loments elongate, > 3 mm wide, the sinuses asymmetrical, notched more deeply below, and obviously constricted to < half of the width of the loment.

Show caption*© Mary Keim, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)     3 Flowers in simple terminal racemes; leaflets mostly > 2.5× as long as wide  Desmodium incanum

3 Flowers either in axillary racemes or in terminal panicles; leaflets mostly 0.9-2.0× as long as wide.

Show caption*© Gage Barnes, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Gage Barnes       4 Stipules ovate, persistent, slightly to strongly clasping at the base, 6-12 mm long.

Show caption*© Gary P. Fleming         5 Leaflets ovate, 1.2-1.9× as long as wide; flowers white to yellowish; loment uncinate-puberulent only along the sutures  Desmodium ochroleucum

Show caption*© Gage Barnes, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Gage Barnes         5 Leaflets ovate, 0.8-1.1× as long as wide; flowers blue-purple; loment uncinate-puberulent over the surface  Desmodium rotundifolium

Show caption*© Scott Ward       4 Stipules lanceolate to linear (or deltate in D. humifusum), usually quickly deciduous, not clasping at the base, 2-8 mm long.

6 Terminal leaflet 1.4-2.0× as long as wide, 3.0-7.0 cm long; loment segments 6-8 mm long; stipules 4-8 mm long, ovate to lance-acuminate  Desmodium ×humifusum

6 Terminal leaflet 0.9-1.2× as long as wide, 1.5-2.3 cm long; loment segments 4-5 mm long; stipules lanceolate, 1-5 mm long  Desmodium lineatum