Stylosanthes viscosa

Stylosanthes viscosa, the sticky pencilflower, is a perennial herb or subshrub of the Fabaceae native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, including the Caribbean and Mexico south through Brazil. Plants are 20 to 80 cm tall, with somewhat woody, branching stems densely covered in glandular hairs that exude a sticky, viscid resin (hence the epithet). The leaves are alternate and trifoliate, with narrowly elliptic leaflets bearing prominent parallel veins and conspicuous stipules adnate to the petiole. Small yellow to orange pea-like flowers are produced in dense terminal spikes subtended by leafy bracts. The fruits are small, two-segmented loments with one or both segments bearing a hooked beak. It grows in savannas, open woodland, sandy soils, and disturbed sites, and is used in some regions as a forage legume.