Swainsona kingii F.Muell.

Scientific Description

Erect or twining or climbing plants, herb. Stems terete, not spiny, hairy; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, compound, alternate, continuous with stem, 25-70 mm long, glabrous, flat with flat margins; margins entire; tubercles absent, leaflets 5-7, pinnately arranged, terminal leaflet present, stalked; pustules or glands absent. Stipules present and persistent to older leaves, 10-15 mm long, without glands, ribless. Pedicel present, 2 mm long, glabrous. Bracteoles present and persistent, 0.5-1 mm long, glabrous, not striate. Calyx 4-4.5 mm long, not accrescent, glabrous, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 9-10 mm long, multicoloured, mostly pink or purple, with some pink or purple spots, streaks or blotches; claws present; standard 8-10.2 mm long, glabrous, not auriculate, wings 7.6-9 mm long, not auriculate, keel 7-8 mm long, beaked, not auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short). Ovary stipitate, glabrous; style 7.5-8.5 mm long, glabrous, bearded (with a tuft of hairs at apex), flattened at apex. Fruit dehiscent (a pod or follicle), 18-20 mm long, 4-5 mm wide, stipitate, not constricted between the seeds, round in cross-section, glabrous. Flowers in May, June, July, August, September and October. Occurs in the Eremaean and South-West Botanical Province, in the Great Sandy Desert, Pilbara, Carnarvon, Gascoyne, Little Sandy Desert, Yalgoo, Murchison, Great Victorian Desert, Coolgardie, Nullarbor and Geraldton Sandplains IBRA regions.