The Green bird flower

 From - Wikipedia 

Eddited by - Vinuri Randhula Silva,

Crotalaria cunninghamii, also known as green bird flower,  parrot pea or regal bird flower, named Crotalaria after the Greek word for rattle, because their seeds rattle, and cunninghamii after early 19th century botanist Allan Cunningham. Crotalaria cunninghamii is known as Mangarr to the Nyangumarta Warrarn Indigenous group.

Crotalaria cunninghamii is a short-lived perennial plant native to Australia and its habitat is the deserts, coastlands, drainage lines and sand dunes of the northern half of Western Australia and the Northern Territory. This habitat is semi-arid to temperate regions in well drained soils. Crotalaria cunninghamii blooms from January to April. It is pollinated by large bees and by honeyeaters.

 The green bird flower is a perennial shrub that grows to about 1–3 m in height. It has hairy or woolly branches and dull green foliage. The oval leaves are about 30 mm long, the large and greenish pea flowers are streaked with fine black lines, and the club-shaped seed pods are up to 50 mm long. The plant's flowers grow on long spikes at the ends of its branches. The flower greatly resembles a bird attached by its beak to the central stalk of the flower head. The Mauve flowers are partially covered in hairy lobes. Crotalaria cunninghamii is non-allergenic and its pods are large and almost square and are covered in a soft, green hairy shell.

The appearance of the flowers of Crotalaria cunninghamii has been debated whether it resembles a bird by natural selection or if it is due to chance. The debate is whether the flowers are bird shaped to ward off unwanted predators or to attract certain pollinators, known as Batesian mimicry, or if it is just by chance that they look like birds and humans have associated the shape of the flower with a bird, known as simulacrum.

Michael Whitehead from the University of Melbourne stated that the shape of the flowers are consistent with bird pollination, with its large flowers and long keel on its petals. This makes sense because the predominant pollinators of Crotalaria cunninghamii are nectivorous birds and bees. There are a large number of plants with flowers that look like animals, such as the Dracula simia (monkey orchid) that looks like a monkey or the Phalaenopsis (Moth Orchid) that looks like a moth. These plants have the same debate surrounding their unique appearance.

Crotalaria cunninghamii habitat is the arid to semi-arid zones to the tropics, including northern Western Australia, the Northern Territory, northern South Australia and southwest Queensland. Crotalaria cunninghamii predominantly grows in well drained soils in shrub land and grassland or savannah woodlands, usually on desert dunes, sand plains and drainage lines.