Swainsona paucifoliolata

Swainsona paucifoliolata is a prostrate, spreading or scrambling perennial herb in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to inland areas in the north of Western Australia. It has 3 to 7 usually narrowly lance-shaped leaflets, and racemes of 3 to 16 purple flowers.

Description
Swainsona paucifoliolata is a prostrate, spreading or scrambling perennial herb that typically grows to a height of about 15 cm with up to 3 prostrate or ascending stems from the top of the taproot. Its leaves are mostly 5–7 mm long with about 3 to 7 usually narrowly lance-shaped leaflets, the side leaflets 10–25 mm long and 2–3 mm wide with stipules 2–6 mm long at the base of the petioles. The flowers are arranged in racemes up to 50–150 mm long with up to 3 to about 16 flowers on a peduncle 0.5–2 mm wide, each flower about 7–10 mm long on a hairy pedicel 1–2 mm long. The sepals are joined at the base, forming a tube about 2 mm long, the sepal lobes longer than the tube. The petals are purple, the standard petal about 8–10 mm long and wide, the wings 7–8 mm long, and the keel 8–10 mm long and 2–3 mm deep. Flowering occurs from April to August or September and the fruit is oblong, about 10–15 mm and about 4 mm wide.

Taxonomy
Swainsona paucifoliolata was first formally described in 1993 by Joy Thompson in the journal Telopea from a specimen collected near Meekatharra in 1957. The specific epithet (paucifoliolata) means "few leaflets".

Distribution and habitat
This species of swainsona grows in creeklines, claypans and soakage areas in the Little Sandy Desert, Murchison, Pilbara and Yalgoo bioregions of northern Western Australia.

Conservation status
Swainsona paucifoliolata is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.