Ornithopus compressus L.
Yellow Serradella

Scientific Description

Twining or climbing plants. Stems terete, not spiny, hairy; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, compound, alternate, 20-110 mm long, hairy, with simple hairs, flat with flat margins; margins entire; tubercles absent, leaflets 23-29, pinnately arranged, terminal leaflet present, stalked; pustules or glands absent. Stipules present and persistent to older leaves. Pedicel present, 0.5-1 mm long, hairy. Bracteoles present and persistent or absent. Calyx 3-5 mm long, not accrescent, hairy, with simple hairs, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 5-8 mm long, uniformly coloured, yellow; claws present; standard 6-7 mm long, glabrous, not auriculate, wings 5.2-6 mm long, not auriculate, keel 5-5.5 mm long, not beaked, not auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments united in an open sheath with one free stamen. Ovary sessile or subsessile, glabrous; style 3-3.5 mm long, glabrous, not bearded, terete. Fruit indehiscent and splitting into sections (schizocarps), sessile or subsessile, constricted between the seeds, round in cross-section, not beaked. Flowers in January, August, September, October and November. Occurs in the South-West Botanical Province, in the Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest, Warren, Esperance and Swan Coastal Plain IBRA regions.