Sturt’s Desert Pea

Alice Springs Flora •

Alice Springs FloraAlice Springs Flora Index Acacia ligulata Annual Yellowtop Apple Bush Bougainvillea Burdekin Plum Carob Tree (Ceratonia siliqa) Cattle Bush Desert Cotton (Aerva javanica) Desert Oak Eremophila Wildberry Feijoa sellowiana Flannel Cudweed Fork-leaf Corkwood Ghost Gum Golden Everlasting Kurrajong Lemon-flowered Gum MacDonnell’s Desert Fuchsia Native Bluebell Native Tomato Needlewood Olive Tree Perennial Yellow Top Rat’s Tail River Red Gum Inland River Red Gum Rosy Dock Round-leaved Mallee Scurvy Grass Silky Eremophila Stemodia viscosa Striped Mintbush Sturt’s Desert Pea Sturt’s Desert Rose Tangled Leschenaultia Tar Vine Weeping Bottlebrush White Cedar Yellow Billybutton Yellow-keeled Swainsona Yellow Oleander

The Sturt’s Desert Pea (Swainsona formosa) grows well in Alice Springs in Central Australia NT. Whilst there are many seen planted in home gardens, street verge and along the highway, you can also see them growing wild, popping up among other wildflowers around Alice Springs and beyond.

The plant grows in a prostrate form that can be found growing from 1 to 2 metres across the ground. The flowers appear on a vertical stalk (peduncle) in clusters of up to six. The parts of the flower include the flag (top part of the flower, also known as the standard), boss (the black centre that can be other colours), wings (the part immediately below the boss) and the keel (the lower part of the flower).

For the keen observer, you may notice that on occasion other varieties of Sturt’s Desert Pea appear that do not have the black boss of the recognised form, instead the boss may vary through shades of pink, light to dark red, purple and white. In Alice Springs the other most commonly seen Sturt’s Desert Pea, beside those with the black boss, are the Northern form.

Following is the Northern form of the Sturt’s Desert Pea (Swainsona formosa), photographed in the garden area of the Araluen Cultural Precinct in Alice Springs. You can see that it does not have the black boss of the typical Sturt’s Desert Pea.

The following white form of the Sturt’s Desert Pea (Swainsona formosa) appeared along a street verge in Alice Springs.

The following varied pink form of the Sturt’s Desert Pea (Swainsona formosa) appeared on a roundabout in Alice Springs among the standard looking Sturt’s Desert Pea with the black boss and even the Northern form, growing alongside.

The following white form with the pink boss of the Sturt’s Desert Pea (Swainsona formosa) appeared on the same roundabout as above in Alice Springs.