Coral-pea

Hardenbergia violacea, the false sarsaparilla or purple coral-pea, is an evergreen twining or scrambling perennial vine in the family Fabaceae endemic to eastern and southern Australia, occurring across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia in dry sclerophyll forest, woodland, and heathland on a wide range of soils. The plant produces wiry twining stems up to 2-3 m long that climb over neighbouring shrubs or, in open situations, sprawl across the ground as a low cover. Leaves are alternate, simple (unusually for Fabaceae, which typically have compound leaves), narrowly ovate-lanceolate to elliptic, 5-12 cm long, leathery, dark green and glabrous above with a prominent network of paler reticulate veins. The inflorescence is a slender many-flowered axillary raceme 4-15 cm long, bearing 10-40 small pea-flowers each about 1 cm long; the standard petal is deep violet-purple to pinkish-violet with a yellow-green central blotch, the wings dark violet, and the keel paler. Flowering is profuse in late winter and spring (June to November in its native range) and the species is widely cultivated as an ornamental. The fruit is a flat oblong pod 3-5 cm long containing several brownish seeds.