Skip to main content

Swainsona stenodonta F.Muell.

Reference
Fragm. 11:70 (1879)
Conservation Code
Not threatened
Naturalised Status
Native to Western Australia
Name Status
Current

Erect annual, herb, 0.3-1 m high. Fl. brown-red/purple/black, Jul to Oct. Stony sandy or loamy soils. Stony watercourses, sandstone rocks, plains.

Grazyna Paczkowska, Descriptive Catalogue, 6 August 1996
Image

Scientific Description

Prostrate,spreading or scrambling, herb. Stems terete, not spiny, glabrous; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, compound, alternate, not continuous with stem, 50-60 mm long, hairy, with simple hairs, flat with flat margins; margins entire; tubercles absent, leaflets 7-9, pinnately arranged, terminal leaflet present, stalked; pustules or glands absent. Stipules present and persistent to older leaves, 3-4 mm long, without glands, ribless. Pedicel present, 3 mm long, hairy. Bracteoles present and persistent, 0.5-1 mm long, hairy, not striate. Calyx 5-7.5 mm long, not accrescent, hairy, with simple hairs, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 9-14 mm long, multicoloured, mostly black or purple, with some black or purple spots, streaks or blotches; claws present; standard 8-14 mm long, glabrous, auriculate, wings 7-10.5 mm long, auriculate, keel 9-13.5 mm long, not beaked, auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten; anthers 0.8-1.2 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments united in an open sheath with one free stamen, 6-10 mm long. Ovary stipitate, hairy or glandular or glabrous; style 13-14 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, glabrous. Flowers in July, August, September and October. Occurs in the Eremaean Botanical Province, in the Pilbara IBRA regions.

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

Distribution

IBRA Regions
Pilbara.
IBRA Subregions
Chichester, Fortescue, Hamersley.
Local Government Areas (LGAs)
Ashburton, East Pilbara, Port Hedland.