Flower and leaf. Australian Plant Image Index, photo: Murray Fagg, near Boorowa, NSW

Flowers. Australian Plant Image Index, photo: Murray Fagg, Scottsdale Bush Heritage Reserve near Bredbo, NSW

Flowers and leaves. Photo: Don Wood, ACT

Pod. Australian Plant Image Index, photo: Murray Fagg, Scottsdale Bush Heritage Reserve near Bredbo, NSW

Pods and leaves. Photo: Don Wood, ACT

Common Name

Slender Tick-trefoil

Family

Fabaceae

Notes

Perennial forb, prostrate or twining, stems to 50cm long. Leaves alternating up the stems, compound, composed of 3 leaflets, each 0.5-4cm long, 3.5-20mm wide, hairless to sparsely hairy. Flowers pea-shaped, pink to white, with 5 petals, 2 almost joined together. Flowers often self-pollinate without opening. Flowers in racemes of 4-60 flowers, the stalks arisng from the bases of the leaves. Poorly known Vic.

Description (page 391) and line drawing (Fig. 50 page 391) in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Desmodium~varians

The description and line drawings in PlantNET are unchanged from those in the first edition (1991) of Flora of New South Wales Volume 2, which conflated Desmodium varians and Desmodium gunnii. I have based the description above on:

Pedley, L., (1999) Desmodium Desv. (Fabaceae) and related genera in Australia: a taxonomic revision. Austrobaileya 5(2): 252-253, map 41