This plant has a taproot that grips the ground. The leaves are slightly flattened when compared to the leaves of the petai plant, but both have compound and parallel leaves. This plant can grow up to two meters high and I think it is included in the shrub category with the characteristics of having woody stems that branch, grow low close to the ground, and do not have upright stems.
At first glance the leaves of this plant also resemble the shy daughter or Mimosa pudica. On the other hand, the compound leaves also resemble tamarind or tamarind leaves. However, based on simple research after looking for similarities between fruits on internet search engines, this plant tends to look like Desmanthus from the pea family. Referring to the search engine, this plant originates from Central America which was once cultivated for donkey feed.
The information I got, this plant was also brought to the Australian continent to cover areas of clay soil. In several countries of origin, these wild plants are also often used as herbal medicine.
Even though it comes from Central America, I found this plant thriving in an area of my house which is included in the category of tropical areas. This plant is so annoying and hard to lose once the seeds grow in our home area. I have cut this plant several times with a machete, but it grows again with roots growing in the ground.
This shrub even manages to dominate a small garden area in the neighborhood, growing thickly with weeds and also being a nest for black house ants (Ochetellus) and carpenter ants (Camponotus pennsylvanicus). This time, after getting advice from some neighbors, I took the time to uproot the shrubs from the pea family. Difficult, once I pull the roots of this plant in the dry season. However, these plants will be easily uprooted when the area has just been rained on or the soil conditions are damp.
Maybe I was wrong in recognizing the morphology of this plant because I am not a graduate of botany, and only learned about plants when I was studying Biology in high school. This is also the reason, maybe there are friends who know and have good tricks in "quenching" this annoying shrub besides using chemical pest spray liquid.
