Swainsona longicarinata

Swainsona longicarinata is a prostrate or ascending perennial herb in the pea family and is endemic to the far west of Western Australia. It has 5 to 11 variably-shaped leaflets, and racemes of about 7, usually purple flowers.

Description
Swainsona longicarinata is a prostrate, rarely ascending perennial herb, or rarely an annual herb, that typically grows up to about 20 cm tall. Its leaves are 20–70 mm long with 5 to 11 variably-shaped leaflets, the side leaflets 5–10 mm long and 1–6 mm wide with stipules 2–10 mm long at the base of the petioles. The flowers are arranged in racemes up to 200 mm long with about 7 flowers on a peduncle 0.5–1.5 mm wide, each flower 12–14 mm long on a hairy pedicel about 2–3 mm long. The sepals are joined at the base, forming a tube about 2 mm long, the sepal lobes about the same length as the tube. The petals are purple, the standard petal about 11–12 mm long and 12–15 mm wide, the wings about 10 mm long, and the keel 12–14 mm long and 4–5 mm deep. Flowering occurs from July to September and the fruit is elliptic, 10–30 mm and 5–8 mm wide.

Taxonomy
Swainsona longicarinata was first formally described in 1993 by Joy Thompson in the journal Telopea from a specimen collected on Dirk Hartog Island by Alex George in 1972. The specific epithet (longicarinata) means "long keel".

Distribution and habitat
This species of swainsona often grows on coastal calcareous dunes and flats, in the Yalgoo bioregion in the far west of Western Australia.