Grona barbata

Grona barbata, formerly known as Desmodium barbatum, is a small perennial herb or subshrub in the family Fabaceae widespread in tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, Africa and Asia. It typically grows 0.3 to 1 meter tall with slender, sparingly branched stems clothed in soft spreading hairs. The leaves are alternate and trifoliolate, with elliptic to ovate leaflets 2 to 5 centimeters long, the terminal leaflet larger than the lateral pair, and the lower leaf surface often densely silky-pubescent. Small pea-flowers ranging from pink to violet or magenta are borne in slender terminal or axillary racemes. The fruit is a small flat lomentum constricted between the seeds, breaking apart into one-seeded segments covered in hooked hairs that readily cling to fur and clothing, an effective dispersal mechanism. It commonly grows in disturbed open ground, savanna and grassland from sea level to mid elevations.