Our vehicles aren’t the only things that can develop a rattle out along some desert racks. There are some plants that get a rattle up too. Crotalaria is a genus of herbaceous plants and woody shrubs in the Pea Family (Fabaceae) commonly known as rattlepods. There are about 600 species of Crotalaria worldwide, mostly from the tropics.
The common name rattlepod comes from the seeds that become loose in the pod as they mature, and rattle when the pod is shaken. The name derives from the Greek word for castanet.
There are about 30 species of Crotalaria native to Australia and a number of exotic species have become naturalised. Growing mostly in tropical regions, they are generally small to medium shrubs or herbaceous species. Some species contain toxins that accumulate in the liver and produce long-term damage which is often fatal.
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Desert travellers will be familiar with Crotalaria cunninghamii or birdflower, so-called because its green flowers resemble a bird attached by its beak to the central stalk of the flower head. This is a fairly common shrub that grows on unstable dunes right across central Australia.
It grows to about 3 metres tall and has hairy branches and foliage, giving plants a greyish appearance. The leaves are oval shaped and about 30 mm long. The large, greenish pea flowers occur in winter, spring and sometimes in autumn, forming long spikes at the ends of the branches. The flowers are streaked with fine, black lines. The seed pods are a club-shaped pod, about 4-5cm long, which is swollen, hard and velvety.
The sap from the leaves of this species were used by aborigines to treat eye infections and the sinewy stems were used to make sandals.
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Another widespread desert rattlepod is the Bluebush pea, Crotalaria eremaea that has yellow flowers carried on a woody shrub about a metre high. Its leaves can vary between being densely woolly to hairless.
It is found mostly on sand dunes and sand plains in mulga communities, often on bare or unstable areas. It has a system of underground roots from which it is able to regenerate after soaking rains. This hardy plant flowers in spring, and is often eaten by sheep.
Some Crotalaria species are implicated in livestock poisoning. They contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids which accumulate in the liver and produce long-term damage which is often fatal. Horses and cattle are more susceptible to poisoning than sheep. Poisoned horses develop a condition in which they become unaware of their surroundings and wander blindly. A major cause of this poisoning is Crotalaria crispata, a small plant common in the
Kimberley region of Western Australia. Other Crotalaria species cause a similar disease in the remainder of tropical Australia.
I have seen the green birdflowers along the Canning and around
Coongie Lakes, but I have very few photos. Do others have photos from other locations?
Cheers,
Val.
| J and V
"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
- Albert Einstein
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