While the red Sturts Desert pea is an iconic Australian flower, it has a less well known relative with delicate yellow pea flowers. Matt Coulter from Adelaide Botanic Garden, who propagates the red pea, shared some more information about this rare plant, yellow swainsona, recently on Facebook.
“While it does not have the wow factor of our Sturts Desert pea, this may be my favourite species. Swainsona pyrophila is a rare species that is fire responsive for germination. Very few species of Swainsona have yellow flowers. The red stems and petioles are also amazing. It is a much easier species to grow than S. formosa, as it grows on soils with higher moisture. We started with a handful of wild collected seeds from our conservation centre and I now have collected lots of seeds. It is now planted at the Adelaide Botanic Garden and over 500 plants growing in the nursery, lots more seeds will be collected, what a stunner!”
Matt Coulter
For more information on this rare plant see this link.
