3807.000 Desmodium Desv.

Shrubs or herbs. Stipules free or joined; stipels present. Leaves 1-foliolate or pinnately 3-foliolate. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, falsely racemose or paniculate. Calyx not glume-like, small (tube usually 1-2 mm, lobes 1-5 mm (in ours)), 5-lobed, either the lobes subequal or mostly ± 2-lipped. Standard variously coloured. Ovary sessile (1-)2-many-ovulate. Pod transversely jointed, flattened with (1-)2-many 1-seeded articles, often with hooked hairs.

Comment: Recent phylogenic research established that the formerly broadly described genus Desmodium was polyphyletic. This means that only those species native to tropical America and introduced in Africa and elsewhere remain as Desmodium. All native species formerly placed in Desmodium have now been moved to various new genera: Grona, Bouffordia, Polhillides and Pleurolobus. One species had already previously moved to Hylodesmum.

Worldwide: 187 species native Central and South America with some widely introduced in the Old World tropics.

Zimbabwe: 5 cultivated taxa.