Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Desmodium rhytidophyllum

Flowers and leaves. Photographer Don Wood, Buckenbowra State Forest west of Batemans Bay

Leaf. Photographer John Tann, Paruna Reserve near Sydney

Plant. Photographer John Tann, Paruna Reserve near Sydney

Common name

Rusty tick-trefoil

Family

Fabaceae

Where found

Dry forest and woodland. Mainly coast, ranges, and the eastern part of the tablelands.

Notes

Climbing perennial herb or trailing shrub to 1m tall. Stems with dense rusty hairs. Leaves alternating along the stems, compound, with 3 leaflets, each mostly 1.2-7 cm long, 8-35 mm wide, tips blunt to pointed, both surfaces appressed-hairy. Flowers about 6 mm long, pea shaped, with 5 petals, 2 joined together to form the keel, pink to purple, in interrupted clusters of about 30 flowers. Flowers almost all year.

All species of Desmodium in the area have hooked hairs on the transversely jointed pods, which break up on maturity into separate one-seeded sections.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Desmodium~rhytidophyllum (accessed 30 April 2021)