Oxytes brachypoda

Oxytes brachypoda (formerly Desmodium brachypodum), commonly called large tick-trefoil, is a slender herbaceous to subshrubby perennial in the Fabaceae family with trailing or weakly ascending stems. The plant produces alternate trifoliolate leaves with rhombic to ovate leaflets and bears small pink to purplish pea-like flowers in elongate axillary racemes during spring to autumn in southeastern Australia and from March to June in the Northern Territory. Fruits are characteristic loment pods that break apart at maturity into one-seeded segments covered with hooked hairs that readily adhere to clothing and animal coats, giving rise to the common name and aiding seed dispersal. As a legume, it forms nitrogen-fixing root nodules with rhizobia. Native to Papua New Guinea, northern and eastern Australia (Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria), and New Caledonia, it occurs in sclerophyll forests, Acacia shirleyi thickets, and Eucalyptus savanna woodlands.