Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Kennedia prostrata

Flowers and leaves. Photographer Don Wood, Princes Highway, Wandandian Creek

Pods, flowers and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer R Hotchkiss, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Common name

Running postman, Scarlet coral pea

Family

Fabaceae

Where found

Forest, woodland, heath, roadsides, rocky outcrops, and dunes. Coast and ranges. Tablelands south from Goulburn.

Notes

Prostrate or twining perennial herb. Stems more or less hairy, with white hairs. Leaves alternating along the stems, compound, with 3 leaflets, each mostly 0.6-3.5 cm long, 6–35 mm wide, margins wavy, upper surface more or less hairless, lower surface hairy, tips often notched, sometimes mucronate. Flowers 15–25 mm long, pea shaped, with 5 petals, 2 joined together to form the keel, red, rarely white, the standard petal with a yellow spot at the base, single or paired. Flowers Winter to Spring.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Kennedia~prostrata (accessed 19 January, 2021)