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Desmodium scorpiurus; photograph (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2020-12-20

Desmodium scorpiurus (Sw.) Poir.

Fabaceae · Arizona, Florida +34

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Desmodium scorpiurus (Sw.) Poir.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (Sw.) Desv. ex DC.

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Desmodium scorpiurus, photograph (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY)Desmodium scorpiurus, photograph (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY)Desmodium scorpiurus, photograph (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY)Desmodium scorpiurus, photograph (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY)Desmodium scorpiurus, photograph (c) 胡正恆(Jackson Hu), some rights reserved (CC BY)Desmodium scorpiurus, photograph (c) 胡正恆(Jackson Hu), some rights reserved (CC BY) 79 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
14.5°C
Record low 6.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,365mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
27–42DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes June to October, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Desmodium scorpiurus, the Samoan clover or scorpion ticktrefoil, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae. It is native to the New World tropics and subtropics, and it has been widely introduced to Africa, India, Malesia, Australia, and the islands of the Pacific as a livestock forage. A spreading prostrate perennial with stems about 50 cm (20 in) long, it is typically found in the seasonally dry tropics at elevations from 0 to 1,460 m (0 to 4,790 ft).

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Desmodium scorpiurus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (966 mm of 1,259 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.5 °C against a yearly mean of 24.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

Rain

1,259 mm in the median year at the habitat, 966 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 225 mm, driest month March at 25 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 754 mm to 2,471 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,365 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,259 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 42 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 14.5 °C, the absolute minimum 6.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 18.8 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 11.0 °C to 23.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.0 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -67 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Desmodium scorpiurus through the yearWarmest months April and May, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 18.8 °C; 1,259 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°40.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER6.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 27–42RH 60–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 269 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C26 / 23–2927 / 24–3028 / 25–3130 / 26–3330 / 26–3429 / 26–3329 / 25–3229 / 25–3229 / 25–3128 / 25–3127 / 24–3026 / 23–29
Night °C19 / 11–2319 / 11–2420 / 12–2421 / 14–2422 / 17–2523 / 18–2523 / 17–2623 / 17–2623 / 17–2522 / 17–2521 / 14–2419 / 12–24
Rain mm38 / 8–12728 / 8–12125 / 4–16532 / 2–17881 / 5–238191 / 28–316201 / 51–354217 / 51–346225 / 61–372132 / 47–29950 / 17–23039 / 9–169
DLI28 / 24–3533 / 29–3838 / 33–4442 / 32–4842 / 30–5037 / 30–4436 / 32–4236 / 32–4033 / 30–3832 / 28–3630 / 25–3427 / 23–33
RH %62 / 53–6861 / 52–6660 / 50–6660 / 49–6761 / 50–6864 / 56–6965 / 60–6966 / 61–7067 / 62–7165 / 59–6963 / 56–6862 / 54–68
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 269 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (326 records in those cells; 4 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1415:1673 (19.225, -96.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 6.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 269 distinct grid cells holding 326 of the 330 in-range records (4 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1415:1673 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 19.00_-96.250, lapse-corrected -67 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 17 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeArizona, Florida, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Aruba, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North · introduced: Cape Verde, Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Gabon, Zaïre, Chad, Kenya, Malawi, Taiwan, India, South China Sea, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Philippines, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia, Fiji, Samoa, Cook Is., Society Is. · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker18.452, -95.236 · in the densest population, 229 records (29% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual, perennial or subshrub” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 798 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 326 of them in the land cells it reads, of 330 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 668 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 13 km away. 512 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 468 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 798 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Desmodium scorpiurus, photograph 1did not loadDesmodium scorpiurus, photograph 2did not loadDesmodium scorpiurus, photograph 3did not loadDesmodium scorpiurus, photograph 4did not loadDesmodium scorpiurus, photograph 5did not loadDesmodium scorpiurus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) 胡正恆(Jackson Hu), some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Desmodium tortuosum Desmodium tortuosum Dixie ticktrefoil Photo: CC BY, Yu-Huang WangRuellia blechum Ruellia blechum Browne's blechum Photo: CC BY, Guillaume DelaitreIpomoea setosa Ipomoea setosa Brazilian morning-glory Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezDalechampia scandens Dalechampia scandens Spurgecreeper Photo: CC BY, Raúl A. Ruiz M.Amaranthus spinosus Amaranthus spinosus Spiny amaranth Photo: CC0, author not statedSenna occidentalis Senna occidentalis Septicweed Photo: CC BY, Raja Sekhar Chimirala

Other Desmodium 18 in the reference

Desmodium batocaulon Desmodium batocaulon San Pedro ticktrefoil Photo: CC BY, CK2AZDesmodium canadense Desmodium canadense Showy tick trefoil Photo: CC0, author not statedDesmodium canescens Desmodium canescens Hoary tick-trefoil Photo: CC BY, Samuel BucknerDesmodium ciliare Desmodium ciliare Hairy small-leaf ticktrefoil Photo: CC0, author not statedDesmodium glabellum Desmodium glabellum Dillenius' ticktrefoil Photo: CC0, author not statedDesmodium illinoense Desmodium illinoense Illinois tick trefoil Photo: CC0, author not statedDesmodium incanum Desmodium incanum Creeping Beggarweed Photo: CC BY, xanderferretDesmodium intortum Desmodium intortum Greenleaf ticktrefoil Photo: CC BY, Archer SilvermanDesmodium laevigatum Desmodium laevigatum Smooth ticktrefoil Photo: CC BY, Anne ParkerDesmodium molliculum Desmodium molliculum Manayupa Photo: CC BY, Maria Luisa Bravo AlarconDesmodium paniculatum Desmodium paniculatum Narrow-leaf tick-trefoil Photo: CC BY, 岸本年郎Desmodium perplexum Desmodium perplexum Perplexed tick trefoil Photo: CC BY, Chris Stahl all 19 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Desmodium akoense; Desmodium arenarium; Desmodium cinereum; Desmodium multicaule; Desmodium parviflorum and 8 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
(Sw.) Poir.
Native to
Arizona, Florida, Mexico Central +33
Wild records
798 in range · 668 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF's key 8224320 is Desmodium scorpiurus (Sw.) Desv. ex DC.; the page links Kew's Desmodium scorpiurus (Sw.) Poir., and the name is cited as Kew cites it
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 34 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (21 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 8 at a herbarium, 5 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 19.00_-96.250, lapse-corrected -67 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Desmodium scorpiurus (Sw.) Poir. (the item's: IPNI 1007035-2, POWO 135026-3)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 157 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…