''Swainsona phacoides'' commonly known as dwarf Swainson-pea or lilac Darling pea,
is a flowering plant in the family
, and is native to all mainland states of Australia and the Northern Territory. It is a prostrate or ascending
perennial herb with
imparipinnate leaves usually with 5 to 13 elliptic leaflets tapered at both ends, and
raceme
A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...
s of usually 7 4 usually pale to dark reddish-purple.
Description
''Swainsona phacoides'' is a prostrate or ascending perennial
herb
In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...
, often reaching more than about high with stems more or less densely covered in soft, short hairs. The leaves are long and imparipinnate with elliptic leaflets tapered at both ends, the lower leaflets long, wide, apex pointed, rounded or notched, upper and lower surfaces thickly or sparsely covered in soft, short hairs and
stipules about long. The flowers are borne in
raceme
A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...
s of 1-10, usually long,
corolla
Corolla may refer to:
*Corolla (botany), the petals of a flower, considered as a unit
*Toyota Corolla, an automobile model name
* Corolla (headgear), an ancient headdress in the form of a circlet or crown
* ''Corolla'' (gastropod), a genus of moll ...
light to dark reddish purple,
keel blunt and rounded, longer than the
wings,
standard petal usually long, wide, broadly egg-shaped to almost orb-shaped and tapering at the base. Flowering occurs from August to October and the fruit is an oblong-elliptic shaped pod usually long and covered in soft, short hairs.
Taxonomy and naming
''Swainsona phacoides'' was first formally described in 1848 by
George Bentham and the description was published in
Thomas Mitchell's ''Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia''.
The
specific epithet
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
(''phacoides'') refers to a similarity to the genus ''Phaca'', now known as ''
Astragalus''.
Distribution and habitat
Dwarf Swainson-pea grows in sandy, red loam and rocky soils in all mainland states of Australia and the Northern Territory.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15482916
phacoides
''Phacoides'' is a genus of bivalves belonging to the family Lucinidae. MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Phacoides Agassiz, 1846. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&i ...
Fabales of Australia
Flora of New South Wales
Flora of Victoria (state)
Flora of South Australia
Flora of Western Australia
Flora of the Northern Territory
Flora of Queensland