Glycine clandestina

Glycine clandestina is a creeping trailing to climbing plant with very fine and slender stems, rooting at the nodes. It can form tangled-large colonies in some bushland areas.

It has a very large geographic distribution, found commonly over the coast, tablelands and western slopes of New South Wales, extending a little into the western plains. It is extends well into Queensland right up to around Cairns and as far west as around Torrens Creek. It grows over most of Victoria, petering out in the far west. It is found north of Adelaid in South Australia, around Whyalla and further north. It is recorded in Westeren Australia mainly between Perth, Kalgoorlie and Geraldton. It is found in the eastern half of Tasmania, to around Hobart but also extending along the north coast.

It is typically found in dry and wet sclerophyll woodland and forests – as well as grasslands and shrublands, usually on clay and loam soils but probably found on sand as well. It can be prolific after fire. It often forms a common part of native meadows and groundlayers.

Glycine is a member of the “pea” family. This generally means that leaves are alternate with stipules at the base of the petioles. Glycine have compound and alternate leaves, with stipules present. Leaves are tri-foliolate (with 3 leaflets, typical of most pea-scramblers or vines). In this species, leaflets are to 80 mm long by 10 mm wide, linear to oblong-lanceolate, mid to dark green in colour. The main identification feature is the long and narrow leaves along with a climbing habit.

Flowers are, of course, pea-shaped (a term sometimes used is papilionate), with 5 petals in a fixed arrangement; the main back petal is called the “standard”, two lateral petals called “wings” and two fused petals at the bottom called the “keel” (in which the anthers and one carpel tend to be hidden).

In Glycine, flowers are mauve to purple or blue as well as pink-red, and are usually arranged in small racemes or clusters in leaf axils.  in small groups in leaf axils or on the ends of branchlets. The upper two of five sepal lobes are joined in a single “lip”. The standard petal is typically wider than high (a useful identification feature), and the keel is the same length as the wings.

In this species, flowers are purple to mauve, about 6 mm long and about 8 mm across, produced in racemes to about 15 cm long, emerging from leaf axils.

The flowers are followed by linear pods up to 5.5 cm long which twist when ripe and release from 3-6 hard coated seeds. Ants may assist in seed dispersal.