Click on images to enlarge
creeping habit (Photo: Chris Gardiner)
habit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
habit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
older woody stems and leaves with three leaflets (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
leaves and flowers (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of yellow and orange pea-shaped flowers with reddish markings (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
slightly hairy younger stems and clusters of immature fruit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of hairy mature fruit with a relatively long curled beak (Photo: Tracey Slotta at USDA PLANTS Database)
Scientific Name
Stylosanthes hamata (L.) Taub.
Synonyms
Hedysarum hamatum L.
Family
Fabaceae (Queensland, the ACT, Victoria, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory)Fabaceae: sub-family Faboideae (New South Wales)Leguminosae (South Australia)Papilionaceae (Western Australia)
Common Names
Caribbean stylo, cheesytoes, verano, verano stylo
Origin
Native to south-eastern USA (i.e. Florida), Central America (i.e. Guatemala and Nicaragua), the Caribbean, tropical South America (i.e. Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia and Peru).
Naturalised Distribution
Widely naturalised in northern Australia (i.e. naturalised in northern and eastern Queensland, in the northern and central parts of the Northern Territory, and in northern and north-western Western Australia).
Notes
Caribbean stylo (Stylosanthes hamata) is regarded as an environmental weed in northern Queensland, the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia.