Desmodium heterocarpon var. strigosum Meeuwen

Meeuwen, M.S. Knap van (1961) Reinwardtia 6(1): 95. Type: New Guinea, Kalkman B.W. 3596; holo: L; iso: A, BO, CANB, P.

Asian Ticktrefoil

Flowers and fruits as a herb or a shrub up to 1 m tall.

Middle leaflet blade about 2.5-7 x 2-3 cm, stalk about 7-10 mm long. Lateral leaflet blades about 2-5 x 1-2 cm, stalks about 1-3 mm long. Stipules +/- triangular, about 7-10 mm long, longitudinally ribbed, apex filiform or caudate. Stipels about 1-4 mm long. Lateral veins about 5-7 on each side of the midrib forming loops inside the blade margin. Underside of the leaflet blades clothed in pale appressed hairs.

Flowers about 6-8 mm diam. Each flower subtended by a filiform bract about 3 mm long. Calyx tube about 1 mm long, lobes about 1 mm long. Calyx clothed in very short hairs. Corolla lobes about 4-6 mm long. Stamens 10, the filament of nine stamens fused to form a tube about 4 mm long open on one side. The filament of one stamen completely free. Stamens alternately long and short. Ovary about 5 mm long, clothed in prostrate hairs. Ovules 6-8 to eight per ovary.

Fruits (pods) about 15-20 mm long, segmented, surface densely clothed in hooked hairs. Seeds about 2-3 x 2 mm. Radicle about 0.7 mm long, shorter and narrower than the cotyledons.

Features not available.

Occurs in WA, NT, CYP, NEQ, CEQ and southwards as far as New South Wales. Altitudinal range in northern Australia from near level to 500 m? Also occurs in Africa, Asia, Malesia and the Pacific islands.