Swainsona reticulata

Swainsona reticulata is a prostrate perennial herb up to high with many slender stems. The leaves are imparipinnate, mostly long with 5 to 15 egg-shaped leaflets with the narrower end towards the base, often elliptic or very narrowly linear, the side leaflets long and wide with broad, green stipules long at the base of the petioles. The flowers are purple, arranged in racemes of 3 to 7, on a peduncle about wide, each flower long on a densely hairy pedicel long. The sepals are joined at the base to form a tube about long, with teeth about the same length, or longer than the tube. The standard petal is long and wide, the wings long and the keel long and deep. Flowering occurs from August to October, and the fruit is a narrowly egg-shaped pod long and wide with the remains of the style long. ==Taxonomy and naming==

Swainsona reticulata was first formally described in 1924 by John McConnell Black in the Flora of South Australia. The specific epithet (reticulata) means "reticulate". ==Distribution==

Kneed Swainson-pea grows on alluvial flats in grassland or open forest along the Murray River valley, and is widespread on the western slopes and tablelands of New South Wales, extending into Queensland, Victoria and South Australia. ==Conservation status==

Swainsona reticulata is listed as "endangered" in Victoria, under the Victorian Government Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988. ==References==