Clitoria fragrans NatureServe Explorer Species Reports — NatureServe Explorer is a source for authoritative conservation information on more than 50,000 plants, animals and ecological communtities of the U.S and Canada. NatureServe Explorer provides in-depth information on rare and endangered species, but includes common plants and animals too. NatureServe Explorer is a product of NatureServe in collaboration with the Natural Heritage Network.
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FWS Digital Media Library — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Digital Library is a searchable collection of selected images, historical artifacts, audio clips, publications, and video.It a perennial herb or subshrub which grows up to half a meter tall from a woody taproot, sometimes reaching one meter. The slender, purplish, slightly waxy-textured stems have leaves alternately arranged. Each leaf has three elongated oblong or lance-shaped, bristle-tipped green leaflets each up to 4.5 centimeters in length. The inflorescences occur in leaf axils, each bearing one or two fragrant blooms. The flower may be up to 5 cm long and is mostly pale pinkish purple with darker rose-pink streaks at the center and a white spot below. The flower is resupinated, with the reproductive parts curving around to point toward the back of the corolla; this forces a visiting insect to rub against them and thereby transfer pollen. A second type of flower often occurs which is cleistogamous: self-pollinating, and not actually opening into a corolla. The cleistogamous flower is more common in general, but the type with the showy open corolla may be more common in the seasons after a wildfire. Both types bear fruit, a legume pod up to 5 cm long containing up to 9 reddish seeds a few millimeters in length. The seeds are sticky in texture and are dispersed when they adhere to animals
