Kennedia microphylla

Kennedia microphylla is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a prostrate, mat-forming creeper with relatively small, trifoliate leaves and red flowers.

Description

Kennedia microphylla is a prostrate, mat-forming creeper that typically grows to wide and wide. The leaves are trifoliate, long with stipules long at the base, the leaflets flat. The flowers are uniformly red and borne on hairy pedicels about long. The five sepals are hairy and long. The standard petal is long, the wings long and the keel long. Flowering occurs from August to December and the fruit is a hairy, flattened pod long.

Taxonomy

Kennedia microphylla was first formally described in 1844 by Carl Meissner in Johann [Georg Christian Lehmann|Lehmann's] Plantae Preissianae. The specific epithet means "small-leaved".

Distribution and habitat

This kennedia grows in sandy soil in swampy places and in coastal areas in the Avon Wheatbelt, Esperance Plains, Jarrah Forest and Swan [Coastal Plain] biogeographic regions in south-western Western Australia.

Conservation status

Kennedia microphylla is listed as "not threatened" under the Western Australian Biodiversity [Conservation Act 2016 (WA)|Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016].