Common name: Slender Swainson-pea
Swainsona brachycarpa Benth. APNI*
Description: Prostrate to ascending perennial to 10 cm high; stems glabrous or with tubercules bearing minute, appressed or divergent, basifixed hairs.
Leaves mostly 2–10 cm long; leaflets 9–23, ovate to elliptic or narrow-elliptic, the lower 2–12 mm long, 1–4 mm wide, apex emarginate, both surfaces ± glabrous; stipules c. 1 mm long.
Racemes 2–12-flowered; flowers 6–10 mm long. Calyx ± glabrous, teeth shorter than tube. Corolla white to purple or dark red; keel apex rounded, retracted or with a short beak. Style tip straight, incurved or strongly inflexed with a tuft of hairs behind.
Pod elliptic to crescent-shaped, mostly 15–30 mm long, glabrous; style c. 3 mm long; stipe 2–3 mm long.
Distribution and occurrence: in grassland and woodland, often in rocky sites and in loamy soil.
NSW subdivisions: NC, NT
Other Australian states: Qld Vic.
Text by J. Thompson & T. A. James Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 2 (1991)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data ***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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