Desmanthus Willd.

Perennial, small, usually diffuse or decumbent shrubs, or subherbaceous. Leaves moderately small, bipinnate, the pinnae one to many pairs opposite on the rachis, the leaflets few or many pairs, opposite; petiole short, either it and/or the rachis bearing one or more subcupular glands, very rarely eglandular; leaflets small, ob-scurely veined in most species, glabrous or infrequently pubescent; stipules seti-form. Inflorescence of axillary, pedunculate heads, the peduncle usually slender; head dense, usually few-flowered, the flowers more or less erect and the head then less than hemispherical; floral bracts nearly lanceolate, apparently never peltate as in most species of Leicaena. Flowers small, sessile, whitish or greenish; calyx synsepalous, more or less campanulate, 5-dentate; corolla essentially polypetalous, 5-parted, valvaze, the petals narrowed basally; stamens 5 or 10 (staminodes 5 or 0), free, normally exceeding the perianth; anthers comparatively larger as in Leucaena, not smaller as in Acacia, eglandular; ovary subsessile, bilateral, several-ovulate, usually glabrous; style thickened above into a truncate-concave stigma. Legume small, linear, flat, 2-valved, straight or curved, sometimes somewhat constricted between the seeds, dehiscent from the apex (the rather thin, dehisced valves sub-persistent), subseptate or continuous; seeds usually oblique, compressed.