Variable Glycine

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Colleen Miller | Colleen Miller | Colleen Miller

Glycine tabacina


A low spreading plant with long, slender stems, usually creeping or trailing up to 1.5 m. Leaves consist of three clover-like pale green leaflets. Clusters of 4-12 blue to purple pea-like flowers.


Details
Flora Type
Scramblers, twiners
Distinctive Features

Leaves consist of three clover-like leafletswith the end leaflet larger than the two side leaflets. Leaf has a distinct vein at an acute angle to the mid-vein.

Biology

The stems grow from a woody, thick root-stock on heavy soils in woodlands. Rhizobium bacteria live in this legume's root nodules and allow the plant to fix nitrogen from the air. Threatened in South Australia.

Native Status
Native
Flowering Time

Dec-May

Taxonomy
Phylum
Tracheophyta (Vascular Plants)
Class
Magnoliopsida (Flowering Plants)
Order
Fabales
Family
Fabaceae
Genus
Gonocarpus
Species
micranthus

Aborigines roasted and chewed the liquorice-flavoured taproot. Seed locally dispersed by ants. Hard-coated seed is long-lived (5-25 yrs) and germinates readily once scarified.


Interesting Facts
Similar Species

G. tabacina and G. clandestina look similar but the length of the leaflet stalks differs. In G. tabacina the middle leaflet has a longer stalk than the two either side. In G. clandestina, all three leaflet stalks are about the same length.

Native Status
Native