Swainsona laxa explained

Swainsona laxa, the skeleton pea,[1] yellow swainson-pea, yellow Darling pea,[2] or sandhill swainsona,[3] is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to inland Australia. It is an erect, shrublike herb, often appearing leafless, sometimes with 13 to 17 broadly egg-shaped leaflets, and racemes of 15 to 20 usually yellow flowers.

Description

Swainsona laxa is an erect or ascending shrublike herb that can grow to a height of, and has mostly glabrous stems.[4] Its leaves are imparipinnate, generally long, usually with 13 to 17 broadly egg-shaped leaflets, the lower leaflets long and up to wide with a notch at the tip. There is a stipule up to long at the base of the petiole. The flowers are arranged in racemes on a peduncle long with 12 to 20 flowers, each flower long on a pedicel long. The sepals are joined at the base, forming a tube about long with triangular teeth shorter than the sepal tube. The petals are yellow, sometimes with purple markings on the wings, the standard petal long, the wings long, and the keel long and about deep. Flowering probably occurs throughout the year, depending on rainfall, and the fruit is an inflated pod long on a stalk long, with the remains of the style about long.

Taxonomy and naming

Swainsona laxa was first formally described in 1849 by Robert Brown in the botanical appendix of Charles Sturt's Narrative of an Expedition into Central Australia.[5] [6] The specific epithet (laxa) means "loose" or "open".[7]

Distribution and habitat

Skeleton pea grows on the upper slopes of sand ridges in western New South Wales, the north-west of South Australia, southern Northern Territory and Queensland.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Thompson . Joy . James . Teresa A. . Swainsona laxa . Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney . 10 March 2024 . 31 March 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190331011942/http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Swainsona~laxa . live .
  2. Web site: Swainsona laxa . State Herbarium of South Australia . 10 March 2024 . 18 September 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210918160017/http://flora.sa.gov.au/cgi-bin/speciesfacts_display.cgi?form=speciesfacts&name=Swainsona_laxa . live .
  3. Web site: Swainsona laxa . Northern Territory Government . 10 March 2024 . 11 March 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240311000832/https://eflora.nt.gov.au/factsheet?id=2459 . live .
  4. Thompson . Joy . A revision of the genus Swainsona (Fabaceae) . Telopea . 1993 . 5 . 3 . 449–450 . 12 March 2024 . 2 March 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240302093838/https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/264754#page/27/mode/1up . live .
  5. Web site: Swainsona laxa . Australian Plant Name Index . 11 March 2024 . 11 March 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240311000833/https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/rest/instance/apni/517252 . live .
  6. Book: Brown . Robert . Sturt . Charles . Narrative of an expedition into central Australia . 1849 . 2 . T. and W. Boone . London . 76 . 10 March 2024 . 11 March 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240311070024/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433061827337&seq=426 . live .
  7. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 237 . 3rd.

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