Naked-flowered Tick Trefoil (Desmodium nudiflorum) native to eastern North America. It’s going to seed now, just waiting for you to hike past. Its flat seedpods, called loments or more casually, hitchhikers, are covered with short hooked hairs — think miniature velcro. They’re out there and when you come home covered with them it will take forever to remove them all. Really.

Before the loments, tiny, pretty pink flowers that don’t last long at all. I went out this morning to get pictures of them. You can see the one on the left is accompanied by flowers in decline. Not much left. But perhaps you get the idea, blink and they’re gone. And then those loments that come home with you.

Be warned. Notice them. And avoid them. Unless you have time to spare.

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