Index / Search / Desmanthus virgatus
§1 Plant
Desmanthus virgatus (L.) Willd.
vernacular wild tantan — species · Fabaceae
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Forb/herb, Subshrub
- Duration
- Perennial
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Fabaceae Lindl.
- Genus
- Desmanthus
§2a
Native status, by region
- L48 Lower 48 States Native
- PB Pacific Basin (except Hawaii) Introduced
- PR Puerto Rico Native
- VI U.S. Virgin Islands Native
§2b
County-level range
· 62 counties across 3 states/territories§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- High
- Shade
- Low
- Moisture use
- Low
- Fire
- Low
- Salinity
- Medium
- Anaerobic
- Low
- CaCO₃
- Medium
- Hedging
- Low
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- 17 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 365 min.
- Precipitation
- 30–80 in/yr
- pH range
- 5–8
- Root depth
- 24 in min.
- Fertility need
- Medium
- Soil texture
- coarse, medium, fine
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Multiple Stem
- Growth rate
- Slow
- Lifespan
- Moderate
- Mature height
- 2 ft
- Foliage texture
- Fine
- Foliage colour
- Yellow-Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Dense
- Porosity (winter)
- Dense
- Flower colour
- White
- Fruit colour
- Brown
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- Medium
- Toxicity
- None
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Indeterminate
- Seed abundance
- Low
- Seed begins
- Year Round
- Seed ends
- Year Round
- Spread rate
- Moderate
- Stratify
- No
- Seeds / lb
- 340,000
- Propagation
- seed
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- Routinely Available
- Nursery stock
- No
- Browse palatability
- High
- Graze palatability
- High
- Palatable, human
- No
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Counties, by state
Recorded in 62 counties across 3 states/territories.
Florida view state ↗ 7 N ▾
Louisiana view state ↗ 1 N ▾
Texas view state ↗ 54 N ▾
- Aransas 48007
- Atascosa 48013
- Bexar 48029
- Brazoria 48039
- Brazos 48041
- Brewster 48043
- Calhoun 48057
- Cameron 48061
- Chambers 48071
- Colorado 48089
- Comal 48091
- DeWitt 48123
- Dimmit 48127
- Duval 48131
- Fort Bend 48157
- Frio 48163
- Galveston 48167
- Gillespie 48171
- Goliad 48175
- Guadalupe 48187
- Harris 48201
- Hays 48209
- Hidalgo 48215
- Irion 48235
- Jackson 48239
- Jim Wells 48249
- Karnes 48255
- Kendall 48259
- Kenedy 48261
- Kinney 48271
- Kleberg 48273
- La Salle 48283
- Live Oak 48297
- Matagorda 48321
- Maverick 48323
- McMullen 48311
- Medina 48325
- Nueces 48355
- Refugio 48391
- Robertson 48395
- San Patricio 48409
- Starr 48427
- Sutton 48435
- Tom Green 48451
- Travis 48453
- Uvalde 48463
- Val Verde 48465
- Washington 48477
- Webb 48479
- Wharton 48481
- Willacy 48489
- Wilson 48493
- Zapata 48505
- Zavala 48507
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/DEVI3 ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/5360097 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26
fetched 2026-05-26T12:30:10Z