Showy tick trefoil
Desmodium canadense (L.) DC
Family: Fabaceae (legume)
Anna Fiedler, MSU Entomology
Showy tick trefoil
- Bloom Period:
- Late,
- Mid-Season,
- Growth Cycle:
- Perennial,
- Growth Habit:
- Forbs/Herbs,
- Insect Type Attracted:
- Natural Enemy,
- Pollinator,
- Light:
- Full,
- Partial,
- Region:
- Northern Lower Peninsula,
- Southern Lower Peninsula,
- Upper Peninsula
- Soil Moisture:
- Medium,
- Height:
- 3ft
Natural enemies attracted
Mildly attractive: Thomisidae and Chalcidoidea
Pollinators attracted
Mildly attractive: bees including sweat bees and bumble bees.
Pests attracted
Highly attractive: Japanese beetles.
Moderately attractive: aphids and thrips.
Mildly attractive: lygus bugs, leafhoppers and leaf beetles
Plant notes
Vivid-pink flower spikes are borne at the end of branches. Plants filled in during the third year of growth. Plants bloomed throughout August. This species was one of the least attractive to natural enemies in the mid-season, with half as many natural enemies as in the grass control.
Habitat
Showy tick trefoil grows in full to partial sun, and mid-range soil moisture (neither very wet nor very dry). It naturally occurs in open ground in moist to dry sandy conditions.
Cultivation and management
This plant can be grown from seed (flowers in third year) or plug material (flowers in second year). Flowers and leaves were decimated by Japanese beetle in both years of the study.