Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 713 (1753).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Budda pea.

Description:
Erect or spreading annual, rarely biennial, 30-100 cm high; stems branched, thick, pithy, with tubercle-based glandular hairs; leaves alternate, 4-12 cm long, with 15-35 pairs of leaflets; leaflets narrow-oblong, 3-12 x 0.7-2.5 mm and 1 small terminal leaflet; stipules lanceolate, auriculate.

Racemes loose, flexuose, 1-4-flowered, with leafy bracts at the base of the c. 4 mm long pedicels; bracteoles leafy, 2-3 mm long, broad-lanceolate, at the base of the calyx; calyx c. 9 mm long, upper lip 2-toothed, lower lip 3-toothed, practically glabrous; petals yellowish, sometimes streaked purple, 6-9 mm long, one-third longer than the calyx; standard ovate, glabrous, keel equalling the wings, both obtuse.

Pod on the long slender Stipe protruding beyond the calyx, flat, 2-5 x 4-5 mm, breaking into 3-9 articles 3.5-5 mm square, each containing 1 seed and notched between them along the lower suture, compressed but domed and ornamented with warts over the seed; seed reniform, c. 4 mm long, green-yellow, smooth.

Image source: fig. 323A in J.P. Jessop and H.R. Toelken Ed. 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Cunningham et al. (1982) Plants of western New South Wales, p. 383.

Distribution:  periodically flooded places and roadsides. S.Aust.: NW, LE, GT.   W.Aust.; N.T.; Qld; N.S.W.;.   southern Asia; Africa; northern America; Conservation status: native Flowering time: all the year round, depending on rainfall.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: The species is not grazed and it is suspected of causing deaths of horses and pigs being fed on grain contaminated with seed of this species.

Author: Not yet available