Desmodium 
foliolate; rachis to basal leaflets 3-15 mm, 3-20 mm 
overall; /eaflets obcordate, orbicular or reniform, 
rarely oblong, 5-30 mm long, 5-22 mm wide, L/W 
0.9-1.3(2), base rounded or cordate, apex emarginate 
or truncate. Inflorescence sparse, to 450 mm long, 
with dense patent (occasionally adpressed) yellowish 
strigose hairs on the rachis, flowers 1 per bract; 
bracts caducous, 3-4 mm long, with white or yellow 
strigose simple hairs. Pedicels 6-9 mm long, with 
short hooked hairs, glandular based hairs and 
yellowish long strigose hairs; bracteoles absent. Calyx 
2-3 mm long, with minute and short hooked hairs and 
yellow strigose hairs; lobes 5, 3-4 times as long as 
tube, upper lobes shortly connate. Corolla pink or 
white; standard shortly clawed, obovate, 2-4 mm long, 
with 2 small calli; wings clawed, adhering to keel; 
keel clawed. Pod brown, straight or slightly curved, 
6-15 mm long, 2-3.5 mm wide, with white (rarely 
yellow) clavate hairs, less frequent or absent on lower 
articles, upper margin c. 1/10 divided, lower margin 
c. 1/3 divided; articles 1-5, 2-3 mm long. Seeds 
yellow-brown or dark brown, + reniform, 1.5-1.9 mm 
long, 1-1.6 mm wide. Flowering and fruiting: Feb - 
June. Fig. 22 
Apparently endemic to the Top End of the NT and 
common in the DR. Colonising and forming mats on 
disturbed, seasonally wet areas. 
D. ‘Limbunya’ 
A prostrate or spreading annual herb. Stems and 
leaves with patent to adpressed long white hairs and 
minute hooked hairs, leaves often glabrous above. 
Stipules brown, 3-5 mm long, attenuate. Leaves 
pinnately 3-foliolate or 1-foliolate; rachis to basal 
leaflets 4-10 mm, 5-15 mm overall; leaflets obovate- 
elliptic, broadly elliptic, suborbicular or obcordate, 
8-31 mm long, 6-23 mm wide, L/W 1-1.4, base 
rounded, apex emarginate, rounded or truncate. 
Inflorescence few flowered, bracteate, to 120 mm 
long, rachis with adpressed long white strigose hairs; 
flowers solitary in upper bracts; bracts + persistent, 
3-4.5 mm long. Pedicels 2-8 mm long, with minute 
hooked hairs and occasional patent long white hairs 
or almost glabrous; bracteoles absent. Calyx c. 3 mm 
long, with minute hooked and long white simple hairs; 
lobes 5, 0.5-3 times as long as tube, upper lobes 
shortly connate. Corolla pink-mauve; standard 
distinctly clawed, obovate, c. 3.5 mm long, with 2 
calli at base; wings and keel shortly clawed. Pod 
yellow-brown, falcate, 8-17 mm long, 3-4 mm wide, 
fringed with fine short simple hairs, faces with short 
hooked hairs, upper margin entire, lobes of lower 
margin c. 1/6 width of pod; articles 1-5, 4 mm long, 
dehiscing along the lower margin, venation transverse. 
FABACEAE 75 
Seeds pale brown or olivaceous often with black or 
purple spots, reniform, 2.8-3 mm long, 1.8-2.2 mm 
wide, hilum eccentric, annulus obscure. Flowering: 
Feb - May; fruiting: Mar - June. Fig. 22 
Known from the Katherine area to the West 
Kimberley Region. Not in the DR. Occurs in open 
habitats on a variety of soils including clays and red 
sandy soils. Some specimens from the Keep River 
area have features intermediate between this species 
and D. filiforme. 
D. ‘Melville Is.’ 
A straggling creeper with annual stems to 
0.5 m long, and perennial rootstock. Stems, 
undersides of leaves and margins of stipules with 
adpressed or patent simple white hairs and/or 
short hooked secretory hairs, stems also with 
colleters. Inflorescence branches, calyx and fruit 
with septate glandular based and hooked secretory 
hairs, the calyx also with simple straight hairs. 
Stipules red-brown, 6-19 mm long, subulate. Leaves 
1-foliolate; rachis 11-18 mm long; stipels 2.5-6 mm 
long, subulate; Jeaflets ovate to orbicular, 16-54 mm 
long, 18-42 mm wide, L/W 0.9-1.3, venation 
prominent below, tertiary venation scalariform, 
base rounded or cordate, apex rounded. Inflorescence 
to 100 mm long; bracts + persistent, ovate, 
acuminate, 5-7 mm long. Pedicels 4-5 mm long; 
bracteoles absent. Calyx 2.5-3 mm long; lobes 4, 
subequal, 1-2 times as long as tube, upper lobe 
shallowly to deeply bifid. Corolla colour unknown; 
standard not clawed, + orbicular, 2.5-3 mm long, 
slightly broader than long; wings shortly clawed, 
basal lobes poorly developed; keel shortly clawed, 
lobes absent. Pod brown, 14-20 mm long, c. 3 mm 
wide, with hooked hairs, upper margin entire to 
shallowly lobed, lower margin shallowly to deeply 
lobed; articles 3-6, disarticulating tardily, 4-5 mm 
long, dehiscing along lower margin, venation 
transverse. Seeds brown, oblong, 1.6-2.8 mm long, 
1.3-2 mm wide. Flowering: Oct - May; fruiting: Apr 
- May. Fig. 22 
Apparently endemic to the DR where it is known 
only from Melville Is. and near the upper Adelaide 
R., in Eucalypt savanna. 
D. ‘Pine Ck’ 
An erect or spreading annual herb to 35 cm tall, 
often smaller. Stems with patent to adpressed long 
yellow or white hairs, and occasional’ short hooked 
hairs and glandular based secretory hairs; leaves with 
soft spreading long white hairs. Stipules brown, 3.5- 
4.5 mm long, attenuate. Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate 
