Scientific Name

Stylosanthes guianensis (Aubl.) Sw.

Synonyms

Stylosanthes guianensis (Aubl.) Sw. var. guianensis
Stylosanthes guianensis (Aubl.) Sw. var. intermedia (Vogel) Hassl.
Trifolium guianense Aubl.

Common Names

Brazilian lucerne, common stylo, Cook stylo, fine stem stylo, fine-stem stylo, Nigerian stylo, stylo, tropical lucerne

Family

Fabaceae (Queensland, the ACT, Victoria, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory)
Fabaceae: sub-family Faboideae (New South Wales)
Leguminosae (South Australia)
Papilionaceae (Western Australia)

Origin

Native to Mexico, Central America (i.e. Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama) and tropical South America (i.e. French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Paraguay).

Naturalised Distribution

Widely naturalised in northern Australia (i.e. in northern and eastern Queensland, in the north-western parts of the Northern Territory, and in the northern and north-western parts of Western Australia).

Naturalised elsewhere in tropics, including on several Pacific islands (i.e. the Cook islands, Hawaii, New Caledonia, Niue and Palau).

Notes

Common stylo (Stylosanthes guianensis) is regarded as an environmental weed in northern Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

habit (Photo: Chris Gardiner)	stems, leaves and flower clusters (Photo: Chris Gardiner)	close-up of leaves with three elongated leaflets (Photo: Chris Gardiner)	close-up of flowers and relatively thin stems covered in spreading reddish-coloured bristles (Photo: Chris Gardiner)
close-up of immature fruit and relatively thin bristly stems (Photo: Chris Gardiner)	close-up of seeds (Photo: Tracey Slotta at USDA PLANTS Database)