Swainsona purpurea

Erect or spreading annual or perennial herb, to 50 cm tall; stems often densely pubescent with appressed medifixed hairs. Leaves mostly 3–12 cm long; leaflets 3–11, linear or elliptic, lateral leaflets 10–30 mm long, 1–5 mm wide, terminal leaflet usually longer than upper laterals, apices acute to emarginate, sometimes mucronate, both surfaces often sparsely pubescent; stipules to c. 10 mm long. Racemes mostly 3–20-flowered; flowers usually 12–14 mm long, rarely smaller; calyx pubescent, teeth much shorter than or equal to tube; petals purple; standard usually 10–15 mm long, usually 10–15 mm wide, broad-ovate to suborbicular, clawed; keel usually 10–13 mm long, semicircular, apex obtuse, often curved upward, twisted laterally as flower ages; style tip more or less straight. Pod variable, fusiform-ellipsoid, mostly 10–60 mm long, 2–5 mm wide, curved, pubescent, stipe to c. 4 mm long; seeds to c. 20, cordate, c. 2 mm long, mottled olive-green to brown. Flowers Aug.–Oct.