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The Shamrock pea (Parochetus communis) belongs to Fabaceae (the Pea family). It is a perennial herb that is distributed from the Indian subcontinent to Sichuan and Yunnan provinces of China, as well as from the Indochina Peninsula to South Malaysia. It grows in thickets, forest edges, meadows, and roadsides at high elevations, and is 10 to 20 cm tall. It spreads with long stolons. The leaves are trifoliate and look like "clovers" with brownish-brown spots. The cobalt blue papillionaceous flowers bloom on scapes from April to November. In Chinese, it is called "紫雀花" (zi que hua).
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