[D. intortum (Mill.) Urb. var. pilosiusculum (DC) Fosb.; D. uncinatum sensu auct., non (Jacq.) DC; Meibomia limensis (Hook.) Kuntze var. pilosiusculum (DC) Schindl.]
(nat) Spanish or chili clover, pua pili- pili, kikaniapipili, pilipili ‘ula (Ni‘ihau)
Erect or spreading herbs or subshrubs 3-9dm tall; stems moderately to densely pubescent with long and minute hooked hairs and sparsely longer pubescent. Leaves trifoliolate, leaflets ovate to narrowly ovate, terminal one 2.5-8 cm long, 1.5-3.5 cm wide, upper surface glabrous or nearly so and sometimes with a pale whitish mark along midrib, lower surface moderately to densely appressed pubescent, apex acute or sometimes obtuse, base obtuse or somewhat cuneate, petioles 1.5-4 cm long. Flow-ers numerous in racemose inflorescences 5-15cm long, rachis densely pubescent with minute and long hooked hairs, pedicels 5-7 mm long, deciduous with articles, pubescence same as rachis; corolla pink or sometimes white, 8-9 mm long. Pods subsessile, (4-)6-8-jointed, 2.5-4 cm long, densely pu-bescent with hooked hairs, articles de- pressed-obovate, 4-5 mm long, 3-4 mm wide. [2n = 22.] Native to South America, naturalized on some Pacific islands (Hawaii, Marquesas, and Tonga); in Hawaii the most common Desmodium species, widely naturalized along roadsides, in pastures, and disturbed sites in mesic to wet forest, 3-1,190 m, on Midway Atoll and all of the main islands. First collected on 0‘ahu in 1840-1841 (U.S. Expl. Exped. s.n., US, not seen).—Plate 90.
This species has long been included within Desmodium uncinatum. Verdcourt (1979) considered D. intortum and D. uncinatum as distinct from one another based on the presence or absence of a pale whitish mark along the leaflet midrib. Degener (1934d) noted differences between the Hawaiian and South American plants of D. uncinatum and adopted D. sandwicense for the Hawaiian populations. However, there are also specimens similar to D. sandwicense from South America (Fosberg, 1968a) where it appears to be native. Fosberg (1968a) is of the same opinion as Schindler, but regarded the Hawaiian plants as a variety of the South American D. intortum.
Specimens of Desmodium intortum from Hawaii are easily separated from those of D. sandwicense by several characters indicated in the key. The wrhite spongy pith of the stem of D. intortum has been previously overlooked. This feature does not occur in D. sandwicense. The character state in the stems of D. uncinatum and D. limense Hook, has not been studied. It seems best, at present, to treat D. sandwicense as distinct until the taxonomic confusion among intortum, D. limense, and D. uncinatum can be resolved.