Fabaceae
Parochetus

Parochetus communis Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don

First published in Prodr. Fl. Nepal.: 240 (1825)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is Indian Subcontinent to China (Sichuan, Yunnan) and Indo-China, S. Malesia. It is a perennial and grows primarily in the montane tropical biome.

Descriptions

Leguminosae, J. B. Gillett, R. M. Polhill & B. Verdcourt. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1971

Morphology General Habit
Stems glabrous or sparsely pilose.
Morphology Leaves
Stipules scarious, oval, acute, 4–10 mm. long; petiole 3–25 cm. long; leaflets cuneate-obovate, up to 3·5 cm. long and wide, emarginate, entire or crenate or coarsely toothed distally; main nerves ± 4 on each side.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences
Inflorescence (1–)2(–4)-flowered; peduncle 4–15 cm. long; bracts 2–4 mm. long, brown, scarious, with filiform tips; pedicels 1–9 cm. long, reflexed in fruit.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx
Calyx 6–7 mm. long, sparsely pilose, divided to the middle into ovate acute teeth, the upper pair united almost to the tip, the lowest longer than the lateral; nerves ± 15, branching irregularly into a network.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla
Corolla bright blue; standard up to 17 mm. long by 14 mm. wide; wings ± 13 mm., keel ± 11 mm. long.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Gynoecium Pistil
Style slender, tapering, bent through 90° near the middle; stigma minute, capitate.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits
Pod up to 25 mm. long, ± 4 mm. wide, ending in a short acute beak, glabrous, with numerous fine branching transverse veins, often not splitting until forced open by germinating seeds.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds
Seeds 10–15, dark, obscurely mottled, not conspicuously arillate, ± 2 mm. long by 1–5 mm. wide; hilum small, circular, lateral.
Figures
Fig. 141.
Habitat
Upland evergreen forest, bamboo forest and lower part of ericaceous belt, especially in damp places, usually on volcanic mountains; 1500–3450m.; rainfall 1100 mm. and over
Distribution
K1 K3 K4 K6 T2 T6 T7 U2 U3 Indo-China
[FTEA]

International Legume Database and Information Service

Conservation
Not Threatened
Ecology
Africa: Afromontane forest, Afromontane(upland) bushland and thicket., Afromontane bamboo thicket.
Morphology General Habit
Perennial, Not climbing, Herb
Vernacular
Shamrock Pea
[ILDIS]

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation
Predicted extinction risk: not threatened. Confidence: confident
[AERP]

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/176913/7330107

Conservation
LC - least concern
[IUCN]

Uses

Use
Environmental, Medicine
[ILDIS]

Common Names

English
Shamrock Pea

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • Flora of Tropical East Africa

    • Flora of Tropical East Africa
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • 'The Herbarium Catalogue, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet http://www.kew.org/herbcat [accessed on Day Month Year]'. Please enter the date on which you consulted the system.
    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • IUCN Categories

    • IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • International Legume Database and Information Service

    • International Legume Database and Information Service (ILDIS) V10.39 Nov 2011
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Living Collection Database

    • Common Names from Plants and People Africa http://www.plantsandpeopleafrica.com/

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Science Photographs

    • Copyright applied to individual images