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Service Notice

The Western Australian Herbarium’s collections management system, WAHerb, and DBCA’s flora taxonomic names application, WACensus, have been set to read-only mode since 1 October 2025. Recent taxonomic changes are not currently being reflected in Florabase, herbarium collections, or the census. Due to the rapidly approaching holiday season and associated agency and facility soft closures, along with the substantial work involved in data mapping, cleaning, and verification, the migration to the new collection management software is not expected to occur before 1 March 2026, when a further update will be provided. Please reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns.

The notice period started at 9:45 am on Friday, 12 December 2025 +08:00 and will end at 12:00 pm on Monday, 2 March 2026 +08:00.

Desmodium scorpiurus (Sw.) DC.

Reference
Prodr. [A.P. de Candolle] 2:333 (1825)
Conservation Code
Not threatened
Naturalised Status
Alien to Western Australia
Name Status
Current

Creeping herb, to 0.6 m high, with hooked hairs. Fl. white/pink/purple, Jul to Oct. Well-drained sandy loam. Open situations, behind coastal dunes, river levees.

Amanda Spooner, Descriptive Catalogue, 17 August 2007

Scientific Description

Twining or climbing plants, herb. Stems terete, not spiny, hairy; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, compound, alternate, not continuous with stem, 30-45 mm long, hairy, with simple hairs, flat with flat margins; margins entire; tubercles absent, pinnately arranged, terminal leaflet present, stalked; pustules or glands absent. Stipules present and persistent to older leaves, 2-3 mm long, without glands, ribless. Pedicel present, 2 mm long, hairy. Bracteoles absent. Calyx 2-2.5 mm long, not accrescent, hairy, with simple hairs, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 4-5 mm long, multicoloured, mostly pink or purple, with some pink or purple spots, streaks or blotches; claws present. Stamens ten; filaments united in an open sheath with one free stamen. Fruit indehiscent and not splitting into sections, sessile or subsessile, constricted between the seeds, flat or compressed, not beaked. Flowers in July, August, September and October. Occurs in the Northern and Eremaean Botanical Province, in the Pilbara and Victoria Bonaparte IBRA regions.

C. Hollister and K.R. Thiele, 17 April 2024

Distribution

IBRA Regions
Pilbara, Victoria Bonaparte.
IBRA Subregions
Keep, Roebourne.
Local Government Areas (LGAs)
Port Hedland, Wyndham-East Kimberley.