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Macroptilium lathyroides (L.) Urb.
Phasey Bean

Reference
Symb.Antill. 9:457 (1928)
Conservation Code
Not threatened
Naturalised Status
Alien to Western Australia
Name Status
Current

Usually erect or somewhat trailing annual or biennial, herb, to 1.5 m high. Fl. pink/red/purple, Mar to Jun. Yellow-grey sand over sandstone, black soils. Banks of rivers & channels, roadsides, waste grounds.

Amanda Spooner, Descriptive Catalogue, 17 August 2007

Scientific Description

Twining or climbing plants, herb. Stems flattened, not spiny, glabrous; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, compound, alternate, not continuous with stem, 50-90 mm long, hairy, with simple hairs, flat with flat margins; margins entire; tubercles absent, pinnately arranged, terminal leaflet present, stalked; pustules or glands absent. Stipules present and persistent to older leaves, 8-9.5 mm long, without glands, ribless. Bracteoles absent. Corolla multicoloured, mostly pink, red or purple, with some pink, red or purple spots, streaks or blotches. Stamens ten, NaN (?) mm long. Fruit dehiscent (a pod or follicle), 55-90 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, sessile or subsessile, not constricted between the seeds, round in cross-section, hairy, with simple hairs, not beaked. Flowers in March, April, May and June. Occurs in the Northern and Eremaean Botanical Province, in the Great Sandy Desert and Victoria Bonaparte IBRA regions.

C. Hollister and K.R. Thiele, 17 April 2024

Distribution

IBRA Regions
Central Kimberley, Great Sandy Desert, Northern Kimberley, Victoria Bonaparte.
IBRA Subregions
Keep, McLarty, Mitchell, Mount Eliza, Pentecost.
Local Government Areas (LGAs)
Derby-West Kimberley, Halls Creek, Wyndham-East Kimberley.