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Ornithopus pinnatus (Mill.) Druce
Slender Serradella

Reference
J.Bot. 45:420 (1907)
Conservation Code
Not threatened
Naturalised Status
Alien to Western Australia
Name Status
Current

Prostrate to ascending annual, herb, 0.05-0.3(-0.5) m high, with glabrous, pinnate leaves. Fl. yellow, Aug to Dec or Feb. Gravelly sand, loam & clay soils. Disturbed areas, roadsides.

Amanda Spooner, Descriptive Catalogue, 20 August 2007

Scientific Description

Twining or climbing plants. Stems terete, not spiny, hairy; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, compound, alternate, continuous with stem, 45-60 mm long, hairy, with simple hairs, flat with flat margins; margins entire; tubercles absent, leaflets 11-19, pinnately arranged, terminal leaflet present, stalked; pustules or glands absent. Stipules present and persistent to older leaves. Pedicel present, 0.5 mm long, hairy. Calyx 5-5.5 mm long, not accrescent, hairy, with simple hairs, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 8-9 mm long, uniformly coloured, yellow; claws present; standard 7-8 mm long, glabrous, not auriculate, wings 5.5-6 mm long, not auriculate, keel 6-7 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, 4.5-5 mm long. Ovary sessile or subsessile, glabrous; style 5-7 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 February, August, September, October, November and December. Occurs in the South-West Botanical Province, in the Avon Wheatbelt, Jarrah Forest, Warren, Esperance and Swan Coastal Plain IBRA regions.

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

Distribution

IBRA Regions
Avon Wheatbelt, Esperance Plains, Jarrah Forest, Swan Coastal Plain, Warren.
IBRA Subregions
Fitzgerald, Merredin, Perth, Recherche, Southern Jarrah Forest, Warren.
IMCRA Regions
WA South Coast.
Local Government Areas (LGAs)
Albany, Augusta Margaret River, Boyup Brook, Busselton, Capel, Coorow, Denmark, Esperance, Gnowangerup, Harvey, Jerramungup, Manjimup, Murray, Nannup, Plantagenet, Serpentine-Jarrahdale, Stirling, Swan, Wanneroo.