Swainsona dictyocarpa


Swainsona dictyocarpa is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to central areas of South Australia. It is a small erect perennial herb with imparipinnate leaves with 3 to 7 elliptic leaflets, and racemes of purple flowers in racemes of 2 to 6.

Description

Swainsona dictyocarpa is an erect perennial herb, that typically grows to a height of up to and has gabrous stems. The leaves are imparipinnate, mostly long with 3 to 7 elliptic leaflets, the leaflets long and wide on a petiole long. There are lance-shaped stipules long at the base of the petioles. The flowers are purple, arranged in racemes of 2 to 6 on a peduncle long with bracts long at the base. Each flower is long on a pedicel about long, the sepals long and joined at the base with lance-shape lobes longer than the tube. The standard petal is about long, the wings about long and the keel long. Flowering usually occurs from June to October, and the fruit is a cylindrical pod long and wide.

Taxonomy and naming

Swainsona dictyocarpa was first formally described in 1930 by John McConnell Black in the Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia, from specimens collected by John Burton Cleland north of Lake Gairdner in 1929.

Distribution

This species of pea grows in central South Australia.