Flora of New Zealand Series

yellow serradella

Spreading ascending annual; stems glabrous to sparsely hairy, ribbed. Lvs usually sparsely hairy below, glabrous above; leaflets subsessile, obovate, obtuse and shortly mucronate, in 3-8 pairs, sometimes alternate, 3-9 mm long; stipules somewhat adnate to petiole, triangular. Heads 1-5-flowered; bracts and bracteoles minute, scarious; peduncle ± = lvs. Calyx glabrous or sparsely hairy about teeth; calyx teeth triangular, much < tube. Corolla yellow, or yellow veined with red on standard, 6-8 mm long. Pod glabrous, not constricted between seeds, veined, curved, cylindric, 20-25 mm long, with 8-12-(15), 1-seeded segments; seeds smooth, light brown.

N.: common from Waikato northwards, and Bay of Plenty to East Cape.

W. and S. Europe, Asia Minor, N. Africa 1935

Waste places and pasture, often in gravel or stony ground.

FL Jul-Nov.

Yellow serradella can be distinguished from wild serradella in the vegetative state as it is generally less hairy and has fewer pairs of leaflets. The pods of yellow serradella (Fig. 67) distinguish it from the other naturalised spp. O. pinnatus has been previously known in N.Z. as O. ebracteatus and Arthrolobium pinnatum.