Japanese name: タチクサネム（立草合歓） Scientific name:Desmanthus pernambucanus
[Overview]
A perennial 1–2 m tall, found in sunny wastelands near the coast and similar places.
The stems branch well, grow upright, and have ridges.
Young stems are reddish.
The leaves are alternate and bipinnate, with 6–8 pairs of pinnae.
There is one red gland at the base of the lowest pinna.
The leaflets are oblong, 6–7 mm long and 2.5 mm wide, and set densely in two rows.
The leaf stalk is about 5 cm long.
Flower stalks extend from the leaf axils and bear white flower heads about 8 mm across.
The fruit is a legume 5–10 cm long and about 2.5 mm wide, borne in whorls of 3–6, with a sharply pointed tip.
The seeds are broadly ovate, about 5 mm across, and each fruit contains 20–30 of them.
[History]
Confirmed in Okinawa in 1965, it has become naturalized in the Ryukyu Islands, the Ogasawara Islands and elsewhere.
