Family: Fabaceae
Lotus australis
Citation:
Andrews, Bot. Rep. 10:t. 624 (1811) var. australis.
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: Australian trefoil, austral trefoil.
Description:
Pubescent perennial herb with stiffly erect hollow stems to 60 cm long, often ascending from a woody rootstock; leaves sessile; leaflets 5, obovate-cuneate to narrowly oblanceolate, 10-40 x 2-10 mm, the smaller stipule-like ones embracing the stem, apiculate or obtuse, more or less pubescent with white appressed hairs on both sides; flowers 3-8 in umbels; peduncles axillary, 2-10 cm long, longer than the leaves, with 3 leafy bracts at the summit.
Flowers 10-20 mm long, subsessile; calyx campanulate, 7-11 mm long, pubescent; lobes lanceolate-subulate, usually rather longer than the tube; petals rosy-pink or white; standard ovate-truncate, cuneate, larger than the other petals; wings paler, obovate; keel usually darker, obtusely curved (not angled) along the lower edge, gradually tapering into an obtuse sometimes darker beak.
Pod terete, 30-50 x 2-4 mm, with a slightly raised tip, brown, glabrescent, many-15-seeded; seed suborbicular, c. 2 mm, laterally compressed, dark-brown, smooth.
Published illustration:
Cunningham et al. (1982) Plants of western New South Wales, p. 400.
Distribution:
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S.Aust.: FR, EP, NL, MU, YP, SL, KI, SE. All States but not central Australia.
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Conservation status:
native
Flowering time: apparently the whole year round, commonly in spring.
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SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
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Biology:
Some coastal (including islands) specimens have a greyish appearance with shorter internodes and more distinct nodes on stems which are more flexuose than in inland specimens.
Author:
Not yet available
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