On This Day - November 23rd 1961
Sturt's Desert pea is adopted as the floral emblem of South Australia.
Sturt's Desert Pea is a hardy plant of the Australian desert. It is characterised by deep red pea-shaped flowers contrasting sharply with grey-green foliage. The indigenous Koori people call it the "flower of blood", and tell a story of a young woman who avoided marriage to an older man of the tribe by eloping with her younger lover. The old man and his friends tracked the couple down, killing them both, along with the people with whom they had sheltered. Months later, the old man returned to where the lovers had been slain and found the ground covered with the scarlet flowers now known as the Sturt's Desert pea.
Sturt's Desert Pea was first discovered by English pirate and explorer William Dampier when he anchored off the northwestern coast of Australia in 1688 and again in 1699. Explorer Charles Sturt noted it growing in abundance in the arid areas between Adelaide and Central Australia during his forays into the desert in 1844, and commented on its exceptional beauty when in flower. It was then formally named after Charles Sturt in honour of his explorations of inland Australia, although it bears several Latin names: Swainsona formosa and Willdampia formosa (after William Dampier).
Sturt's Desert Pea is a protected species in South Australia. It was adopted as the floral emblem of South Australia on 23 November 1961, under its then-Latin name Clianthus formosus.