My sully's favorite weed/flower but What is it?

[DanieltheAnvil]

my sulcata Doolin has been eating this since he was born and loves it. I hadnt ever thought to check it out but when I tried, I couldnt even identify it. Amnyone have a clue on this Florida weed?

 

[yagyujubei]

Of course he loves it, it's clover.

 

[DanieltheAnvil]

makes sense. I didnt think it was ever harmful I just didnt know exactly. thanks a lot.

 

[Watsonpartyof4]

Of course he loves it, it's clover.

My Tyrone loves these clover too! He was walking around yesterday with it hanging out his mouth!

 

[kanalomele]

Looks like clover to me too. My Russians love the stuff!

 

[DanieltheAnvil]

Yeah he will eat these every chance he gets. I'm a director at a daycare and i bring my sulcatas to work for the kids to see on occasion. They will go find piles of these just to watch him them eat.

 

[CourtneyAndCarl]

luckies! Carl sniffs clover, may even take a tiny nibble, and then walks away in disgust -_-

 

[BuffaloTortoise]

It's a handsome weed, but not sure what it is. In the first picture, it actually looks like a form of Kalanchoe growing in the midst of this flowering weed. It definitely isn't any clover that I'm familiar with (white clover is common here and through most of the country). Unfortunately my weed identification book (Weeds of the Northeast) doesn't list it. But that isn't surprising, since Florida isn't in the northeast!

Clover doesn't have a creeping habit like this plant does, and the flower is completely different than any clover I've seen. For reference, below is a link to what white clover looks like:

http://www.ppws.vt.edu/scott/weed_id/trfre.htm

Do you see this plant a lot in Florida? Let us know if you are able to obtain a positive ID--I'm curious to know what it is!

 

[Yvonne G]

This IS a type of clover...red clover. You see it a lot in forage mixes. If left alone, it grows very tall, unlike most clovers that stay close to the ground. It is edible.

 

[DanieltheAnvil]

This IS a type of clover...red clover. You see it a lot in forage mixes. If left alone, it grows very tall, unlike most clovers that stay close to the ground. It is edible.

When I read about the red clover, it talks about a plant thats bigger than what I see in my yard. the height of these are maybe 2-3 inches and the leaflets are less than a quarter of an inch. though it looks like a clover. so I dont know. hahaha

 

[NolaGirl]

Torts love clover! My baby Sully goes outdoors daily. He/she streamlines for the clover every time.

 

[BuffaloTortoise]

Hi Daniel, I reached out to some friends at the University of Florida's Division of Agriculture. They did some digging and a number of their livestock and botony specialists were able to identify the weed correctly for us. It's actually creeping indigo (Indigofera spicata).

They also noted: There appears to be some confusion in the literature concerning toxicity. Much of the available literature states that leaves and more so seeds of I. spicata contain the amino acid, indospicine, which causes abortion in cattle, liver damage in sheep, cows and rabbits, and death in chickens. Because of the taxonomic confusion, at least some of this will relate to I. hendecaphylla. The toxic amino acid, indospicine, was originally isolated from I. spicata at a time before I. spicata and I. hendecaphylla were regarded as two separate species. Literature review yields no reliable information on the relative indospicine content of the two individual species.

We know that livestock toxicity and tortoise toxicity don't always go hand-in-hand, but you may want to exhibit some caution.

 

[yagyujubei]

Nice job! I stand corrected.

Hi Daniel, I reached out to some friends at the University of Florida's Division of Agriculture. They did some digging and a number of their livestock and botony specialists were able to identify the weed correctly for us. It's actually creeping indigo (Indigofera spicata).

They also noted: There appears to be some confusion in the literature concerning toxicity. Much of the available literature states that leaves and more so seeds of I. spicata contain the amino acid, indospicine, which causes abortion in cattle, liver damage in sheep, cows and rabbits, and death in chickens. Because of the taxonomic confusion, at least some of this will relate to I. hendecaphylla. The toxic amino acid, indospicine, was originally isolated from I. spicata at a time before I. spicata and I. hendecaphylla were regarded as two separate species. Literature review yields no reliable information on the relative indospicine content of the two individual species.

We know that livestock toxicity and tortoise toxicity don't always go hand-in-hand, but you may want to exhibit some caution.

 

[DanieltheAnvil]

Wow thanks sooo much! i'll look into it further and stop feeding it for now.