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Crotalaria cunninghamii
Also called Birdflower Rattlepod, Green Birdflower, Parrot Pea, Regal Birdflower
Birdflower (Crotalaria cunninghamii) is a short-lived perennial shrub from the deserts and dunes of northern Australia, grown for its unusual green pea flowers that resemble birds. It needs full sun, well-drained soil and very little water.
Crotalaria cunninghamii, also known as green bird flower, bird flower ratulpo, parrot pea, or regal bird flower, is a plant of the legume family Fabaceae, named Crotalaria after the Greek word for rattle because their seeds rattle, and cunninghamii after early 19th-century botanist Allan Cunningham. Crotalaria cunninghamii is known as Mangarr to the Nyangumarta Warrarn Indigenous group.
Crotalaria cunninghamii is a short-lived perennial plant native to Australia, and its habitat is the deserts, coastlands, drainage lines, and sand dunes of the northern half of Western Australia and the Northern Territory. This habitat is semi-arid to temperate regions in well-drained soils. Crotalaria cunninghamii blooms from January to April. It is pollinated by large bees and by honeyeaters.
Crotalaria cunninghamii habitat is the arid to semi-arid zones of the tropics, including northern Western Australia, the Northern Territory, northern South Australia, and southwest Queensland . Crotalaria cunninghamii predominantly grows in well-drained soils in shrubland and grassland or savannah woodlands, usually on desert dunes, sandplains, and drainage lines. Crotalaria cunninghamii also grows in Mulga communities in arid regions. Mulga communities are 'hotspots' of resources, such as water holes in deserts . Mulga communities account for 20% of the total land mass of arid Australia.
Sunn hemp · Birdflower · Longbeak rattlebox · Smooth rattlebox · Rattleweed · Showy rattlebox
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Crotalaria cunninghamii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
