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Ornithopus compressus L.
Yellow Serradella

Reference
Sp.Pl. 2:744 (1753)
Conservation Code
Not threatened
Naturalised Status
Alien to Western Australia
Name Status
Current

Prostrate or decumbent annual, herb, to 0.1 m high. Fl. yellow, Aug to Nov or Jan. Grey sand, yellow to brown loam, brown sandy clay. Hills, valley bottoms, flood plains, lake edges.

Amanda Spooner, Descriptive Catalogue, 20 August 2007
Image

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.

C. Hollister and K.R. Thiele, 24 October 2023

Distribution

IBRA Regions
Esperance Plains, Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest, Swan Coastal Plain, Warren.
IBRA Subregions
Dandaragan Plateau, Fitzgerald, Geraldton Hills, Lesueur Sandplain, Northern Jarrah Forest, Perth, Recherche, Southern Jarrah Forest, Warren.
IMCRA Regions
Leeuwin-Naturaliste.
Local Government Areas (LGAs)
Albany, Bunbury, Busselton, Canning, Capel, Chittering, Cockburn, Collie, Coorow, Dandaragan, Dardanup, Denmark, Esperance, Gingin, Gosnells, Greater Geraldton, Harvey, Kalamunda, Manjimup, Nannup, Nedlands, Perth, Plantagenet, Rockingham, South Perth, Stirling, Swan, Waroona.