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Swainsona oroboides Benth.
Variable Swainsona

Reference
Fl.Austral. 2:222 (1864)
Conservation Code
Not threatened
Naturalised Status
Native to Western Australia
Name Status
Current

Prostrate or ascending perennial, herb, to 0.15 m high. Fl. purple/red-brown, Jun to Sep. Red loam or sand, occasionally in clay. Floodplains, creek beds, halophytic flats.

Amanda Spooner, Descriptive Catalogue, 20 September 1999

Scientific Description

Prostrate,spreading or scrambling, herb. Stems terete, not spiny, hairy; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, compound, alternate, not continuous with stem, 20-90 mm long, hairy, with simple hairs, flat with flat margins; margins entire; tubercles absent, leaflets 5-9, pinnately arranged, terminal leaflet present, stalked; pustules or glands absent. Stipules present and persistent to older leaves, 4-6 mm long, without glands, ribless. Pedicel present, 2 mm long, hairy. Bracteoles present and persistent, 0.7-1 mm long, hairy, not striate. Calyx 4-5.2 mm long, not accrescent, hairy, with simple hairs, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 9-11.5 mm long, uniformly coloured, purple; claws present; standard 8-9 mm long, glabrous, not auriculate, wings 7-8 mm long, auriculate, keel 9-10.5 mm long, auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten; anthers 0.6-1.2 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments united in an open sheath with one free stamen, 5-7.5 mm long. Ovary stipitate, hairy or glandular; style 10.5-12 mm long, hairy or glandular towards the base, bearded (with a tuft of hairs at apex), flattened at apex. Fruit dehiscent (a pod or follicle), stipitate, not constricted between the seeds, round in cross-section. Flowers in June, July, August and September. Occurs in the Eremaean Botanical Province, in the Pilbara, Gascoyne, Gibson Desert, Central Ranges, Yalgoo, Murchison, Great Victorian Desert and Coolgardie IBRA regions.

C. Hollister and K.R. Thiele, 24 October 2023

Distribution

IBRA Regions
Central Ranges, Coolgardie, Gascoyne, Gibson Desert, Great Victoria Desert, Murchison, Nullarbor, Pilbara, Yalgoo.
IBRA Subregions
Augustus, Carnegie, Eastern Goldfield, Eastern Murchison, Hamersley, Lateritic Plain, Mann-Musgrave Block, Shield, Tallering, Western Murchison.
Local Government Areas (LGAs)
East Pilbara, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Laverton, Leonora, Meekatharra, Ngaanyatjarraku, Sandstone, Wiluna, Yalgoo.