This is widespread in open woodland and brushy grassland across southeastern states, but generally restricted to acid soils. In Ky. there appear to be occasional hybrids with glabellum or perplexum; see also notes under nuttallii (Iseley 1990; W). D. viridiflorum is generally distinct from congeners in its dense pubescence (conspicuously villous and cinereous); also leaflets are relatively broad (L/W mostly 1-1,5). Dried herbarium specimens have a distinctive bicolored look in their leaves: lower surfaces are greyish with dense spreading-villous felty pubescence; upper surfaces are deeper bluish-green, and more thinly strigose but some hairs along veins are relatively short and hooked ("uncinulate"). These upper surfaces have a distinct "velcro" effect when applied to T-shirts, similar to leaves of Phaseolus polystachios; other species of Desmodium in Ky. do not have this property, except perhaps nuttalii and to a lesser extent, glabellum and canescens.