Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Desmodium gunnii
Common name
Gunn's tick-trefoil, Slender tick-trefoil, Southern tick-trefoil
Family
Fabaceae
Where found
Dry forest, woodland, and moist sites. Widespread. Rare on the Western Slopes.
Notes
Perennial herb, prostrate, sprawling or erect, stems to 0.5 m long. Stems hairy or hairless, someimtes slightly sticky. Leaves alternating along the stems, compound, with 3 leaflets, each 0.5-2 cm long, 4–15 mm wide, tips squared off, surfaces somewhat hairless, a few hairs on the veins on lower surface. Stalk of the terminal leaflet always 1 mm long or less. Flowers pea shaped, with 5 petals, 2 joined together to form the keel, pink, mauve or white. Petals 3-5 mm long, standard petal 3-3.3 mm long, the others longer. Flowers appearing single or paired, in open clusters to 16 cm long. Flowers Summer to Autumn.
When it occurs together with Desmodium varians in coastal areas, Desmodium gunnii occurs in moister, shady situations.
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.
All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.
Pullenia gunnii in PlantNET.
PlantNET description: (as Pullenia gunnii): http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Desmodium~gunnii (accessed 30 April 2021)
This description is partly based on Pedley, L., (1999) Desmodium Desv. (Fabaceae) and related genera in Australia: a taxonomic revision. Austrobaileya 5(2): 251, map 40
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