English: Sturt's desert pea; Sturt pea; Showy donia; Beautiful donia; Dampier's clianth; Dampier's clianthus; Sturt's pea; Captain Sturt's desert pea; Desert pea; Glory flower; Glory pea; Sturt's glory pea; Lobster claws; Blood flower; Dampier's glory pea; Australian glory pea; Dampier pea.
Synonyms: Clianthus formosus; Clianthus dampieri; Willdampia.
Clades:
Galegoideae;
Fabales;
Fabidae;
Fabanae;
Angiospermae;
Plants;
Kingdoms.
Region: Northern Territory of Australia.
Habitat: in red sandy or loamy soils, mulga woodland, near creek lines, on stony hills, sometimes in woodland and open plains; desert.
Culture: floral emblem of the state of South Australia; in prose and verse; in some Aboriginal legends; in several Australian postage stamps; on logo of Charles Sturt University.
BotanyHerb; prostrate; annual, short lived perennial; low-growing or prostrate.
Stem: densely softly-hairy; 4 to 8 mm wide.
Leaves: 10 to 15 cm long; imparipinnate; ± 15 elliptic to egg-shaped leaflets, narrower at the base, 10 to 30 cm, 5 to 12 mm wide; stipules broad, densely hairy.
Inflorescence: racemes with 2 to 6 flowers; 10 to cm long.
Flowers: white, red in racemes; peduncle 5 to 15 cm long, shaggy-hairy pedicel; flowering from June to October.
Sepals are joined at the base, forming a bell-shaped tube 5 mm long, with narrowly egg-shaped lobes, with thread-like tips, lobes twice as long as the tube.
Petals: ± 5 cm long, very narrow, the base domed into a usually black, shiny boss, wings are 4 cm long, tapering to a narrow point; keel 5 cm long, ± 13 mm deep with a narrow tip.
Fruit: hairy pod or follicle 4 to 9 cm long, ± 11 mm wide, round in cross-section; stalk 5 to 15 mm long; remains of the style ± 35 mm long.
Seeds: small; long viability; hard seed coat; germination ameliorates by by nicking the seed coat away, by rubbing the seed gently between pieces of sandpaper, by placing the seed in hot, just off-boiling water.