Swainsona katjarra, commonly known as Birriliburu swainsona, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to inland Western Australia. It is an erect annual herb with imparipinnate leaves with 4 to 6 lance-shaped to egg-shaped to elliptical leaflets, and racemes of 15 to 25 magenta flowers.
Swainsona katjarra is an erect annual herb, that typically grows to a height of about and has several stems wide. Its leaves are imparipinnate, long on an elongated petiole with 4 to 6 egg-shaped to elliptical leaflets with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide. There are triangular stipules long at the base of the petiole. The flowers are arranged in racemes long with 15 to 25 flowers on a peduncle wide, each flower long on a pedicel long. The sepals are joined at the base, forming a tube long, the sepal lobes long. The petals are magenta, the standard petal long and wide, the wings purple and long, and the keel purple and long and deep. Flowering occurs has been observed in August, and the fruit is an elliptical pod long and hairy.[1]
Swainsona katjarra was first formally described in 2020 by Robert Davis and Timothy Hammer in the journal Swainsona from specimens collected on the south side of the Carnarvon Range.[2] The specific epithet (katjarra) is the indigenous name for the Carnarvon Range.
This species of Swainsona is only known from the Carnarvon Range in the Gascoyne, Little Sandy Desert and Murchison bioregions of inland Western Australia.
Swainsona katjarra is listed as "Threatened Flora (Declared Rare Flora — Extant)" by the Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.