Sturt’s Desert Pea
This week I would like to introduce you to a strange-looking native Australian plant. Sturt’s desert pea (Swainsona Formosa) is one of Australia’s best known wildflowers. Named after the early explorer, Charles Sturt, it is the floral emblem for South Australia. They are annuals and it is an exciting and thrilling experience to come across large areas of them setting the arid desert areas alight with their brilliant red flowers.
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Nalinki on “Angles and views” is hosting a weekly series called: “Flowersoverflowers”, it will be posted every Tuesday. The idea is to bring some more colorful pics of nature into our blogosphere.
gypsy life 
It’s so pretty. I love the story from Al about the pee! 😀
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Yes Al has a great sense of humour.
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We do like unusual flowers as our floral emblems. Nice shot.
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Thanks LD I think I will feature each of the emblems over the next few weeks,
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A little tale!!! When my niece was young we saw some Sturt’s Desert peas at a flower show in Brisbane. I took a photo of it and told her that when Sturt was in central Australia he went outside his tent for a pee and in the morning the flowers were all around! I told her they only grew where an animal or a person peed in the desert. Unfortunately, she decided that this was a great subject for “show and tell” at school!
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Good story Al and I bet it made a great show and tell. But is it fact or fiction?
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The story is true; the necessity of urine for growth has not been proven!
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I knew a man in UK that peed on his lemon bush every night. It was a prolific lemon bearer!!!
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You’re making me homesick for Broken Hill. A magnificent shot of a flower I was always delighted to stumble across, but never in vast numbers. Where did you take this? My other encounter was in the Ntional Library, where I spent a wonderful morning with a folder of Ellis Rowan originals.
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I didn’t see many of them Meg when we were in WA but came across this large clump of them near Tom Price. I loved the National Library it had so many treasures.
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I couldn’t believe ease of access. I just rang up and they organised for me to spend a morning with Ellis Rowan paintings, and even allowed me a face to face glimpse of George Raper’s painting of a rock lily.
https://morselsandscraps.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/ten-minutes-with-george-raper/
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I couldn’t believe ease of access to the NLA collections. I just rang up and they organised for me to spend a morning alone with Ellis Rowan paintings, and even allowed me a face to face glimpse of George Raper’s painting of a rock lily.
https://morselsandscraps.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/ten-minutes-with-george-raper/
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Lucky you. My rock lily is covered in buds. I’m hoping I see it flowering this year. Previous years I have been away. I look forward to going to your link later today, now I must fly….
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BTW… Like your new avatar, wondered who it was at first…
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Suddenly occurred to me that every one else was exposing themselves – and I’m not really the feather of a black cockatoo! The photo was taken in Warsaw as I sat beside my grandson who was watching men at work on scaffolding with absolute focus. Thank you for noticing.
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Nice happy photo…
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Incredible! The form, shape of it! Strange looking – never seen it before. Thank you for introducing us.
Size?
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Not big the flower head only about 4 inches, but it looks stunning when in mass.
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What a lovely rich colour 🙂
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As they mature the centre knob goes black. These were all quite new flowers so couldn’t find a mature one to photograph
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Such an exotic flower… I am behind this week so will miss this weeks.. My carrots will have to suffice I think LOL I will be back later to catch up with more of your postings Pauline.. I just caught this in the reader xxx Love and Hugs Sue
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G’day Sue, thanks for dropping by, catch up later…
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Love the colour! But that shape . . . leaves me shaking me head in wonderment!
Thank you for such a ……. er, different flower! 😍
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Different it certainly is Del. It is actually a member of the pea family…
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Head-shaking astonishment – never have guessed! Than you!
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🙂
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How fabulous! I have heard of these and may even have seen them wild in the outback, but not in close-up. A field of them must be magnificent.
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They are stunning Jude. I only saw this one clump of them around Tom Price in the Pilbara. They had just started to flower.
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Fabulous colour and again so exotic looking!
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It makes a big splash of colour in the desert areas.
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Pauline, I really think that is the strangest flower I’ve ever seen. Nevertheless, it’s a glorious colour.
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It is a member of the pea family, but a very exotic member.
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your pictures amaze me every week! I’ll for sure remember the name of this beauty, thanks for introducing it!
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You’re welcome Nalinki. We have many exotic and different flowers over here.
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