Alice Springs Desert Park

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Parrot Pea (Crotalaria cunninghamii) at the Alice Springs Desert Park. Also known as the Green Bird Flower, among other names, the Parrot Pea Arrernte name is Alywalywere (pronouced: ail-WEL-yoor-a).

The flowers of the Parrot Pea has a beaked keel that is longer than the wing petals. It is notable for the large greenish yellow pea flowers and large pods. When the seed pods are mature, they make a rattling sound when shaken. The plant has a number of uses by the aboriginal people, including being used as bush medicine.

In the following photo of the Parrot Pea, you can see a bush banana vine winding its way around the stem of the flower.

For more information, check out Crotalaria | Green Bird Flower.


  • Scientific classification
  • Kingdom: Plantae
  • Phylum: Tracheophyta
  • Subphylum: Angiospermae
  • Class: Magnoliopsida
  • Order: Fabales
  • Family: Fabaceae
  • Subfamily: Faboideae
  • Tribe: Crotalarieae
  • Genus: Crotalaria
  • Species: Crotalaria cunninghamii

ASDP FloraASDP Flora Index Batswing Coral Tree Blue Mallee Bush Banana Buttercup Pigweed Dead Finish Desert Grevillea Desert Oak Desert Raisin Field Lily Georges Indigo Golden Everlasting Honey Grevillea Kangaroo Grass Lamarchea sulcata Myoporum acuminatum (Boobialla) Native Apricot Native Bluebell Native Cotton Bush Native Tomato Nicotiana megalosiphon subsp sessilifolia Olearia ferresii Parrot Pea Pink Everlasting Poached Egg Daisy Potato Vine Quandong Rattlepod Grevillea Red-bud Mallee Red Mulga Resurrection Fern Rough Halgania Sandover Lily Silkyheads Small Yellow Button (Chrysocephalum apiculatum) Spearwood Bush Sturt’s Desert Pea Waddy-wood Walukara Weeping Spinifex White Spider Flower Wild Passionfruit Witchetty Bush Wildflower Display