Description: Shrubs or herbs.
Leaves alternate, pinnately 3-foliolate; stipules striate, scarious; stipellate.
Inflorescences terminal or axillary racemes; bracts simple. Calyx tube short, upper 2 teeth ± fused. Standard oblong to ± circular, clawed; wings oblong, usually joined to the middle of the keel; keel obtuse. Stamens diadelphous; anthers uniform. Ovary with c. 2 ovules; style inflexed or incurved.
Pod transversely jointed, separating into 1-seeded articles; articles 2–8, usually indehiscent; seeds rarely arillate.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 46 species. Australia: c. 16 species, Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania.
Previously included in the genus Desmodium, but molecular data have demonstrated that this genus needs to be greatly divided.
Text by R.L. Barrett, Sept. 2019; June 2021
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Stipules 2–6 mm long. | Grona varians |
| Stipules 5–15 mm long. | 2 |
| 2 | Stems and lower surface of leaflets ± densely hairy, appearing whitish; racemes c. 12-flowered. | Grona nemorosa |
| Stems and lower surface of leaflets mostly sparsely hairy or ± glabrous, not appearing whitish; racemes 10–100-flowered.
Back to 1 | Grona heterocarpos |
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