Trailing, slightly woody herb with paired, backward-pointing prickles at the nodes and scattered between the nodes. Leaves digitately compound, lacking prickles. Leaflets in 12-25 pairs, each leaflet 0.5-1.5 cm long. Flower clusters in 1s or 2s, roundish. Flowers 4-parted, pink to lilac. Fruit pods oblong,1.5-1.8 cm long, prickly edged; seeds flat.

Sometimes grown for the entertainment value of the motile leaves, but a pantropical invasive weed; in Australia naturalised mainly in Qld.

S America.

Source: Spencer, R. (2002). Mimosaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 3. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 2. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.