Skip to main content

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.