Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Richardia humistrata

Flowers and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Dharug National Park, near Wisemans Ferry

Flowering plants. Photographer Don Wood, south of Bermagui

Common name

South American Mexican Clover

Family

Rubiaceae

Where found

Disturbed sites and roadsides. Coastal north from Tathra.

Notes

Introduced prostrate perennial herb, often forming dense mats to about 40 cm diameter and rooting from the lower nodes. Stems bristly. Leaves opposite each other, 0.5–2 cm long, 3–10 mm wide, tips pointed, surfaces usually densely bristly and whitish. Flowers white, tubular, the tube 0.5-2 mm long, 4 spreading lobes, the lobes about 1 mm long, soon falling, Flower heads mostly 10–20-flowered, usually subtended by 4 leafy bracts, shorter and relatively broader than the leaves. Calyx 4-lobed, the lobes spreading. 'Seeds' 4 (rarely 3) per seed case, 1.5–2 mm long, smooth, hairless, pale brown. Flowering: spring–autumn.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Richardia~humistrata  (accessed 4 February, 2021)