Patersonia maxwellii is a perennial herbaceous plant that is endemic to Southwest Australia

Southwest Australia

Southwest Australia is a biodiversity hotspot that includes the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregions of Western Australia. The region has a wet-winter, dry-summer Mediterranean climate, one of five such regions in the world...

, occurring in the Jarrah Forest

Jarrah Forest

Jarrah Forest is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia region in Western Australia.-Location and description:The ecoregion stands on the 300m high Yilgarn block inland plateau and includes wooded valleys such as those of Western Australia's Murray River and the Helena River near...

 and Esperance Plains

Esperance Plains

Esperance Plains, also known as Eyre Botanical District, is a biogeographic region in southern Western Australia. Located on the south coast between the Avon Wheatbelt and Hampton regions, and bordered to the north by the Mallee region, it is a plain punctuated by granite and quartz outcrops and...

 regions. The flowers are violet or blue and appear between September and November. The height is 0.2 – 0.3 metres. It is found on white sand in seasonally wet areas. It was first described by Ferdinand von Mueller

Ferdinand von Mueller

Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, KCMG was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist.-Early life:...

, placing it in a genus Genosiris, and later transferred to Patersonia

Patersonia

Patersonia is a genus of the Iridaceae with about 20 species in Australia and several in the Malesian region. The genus name is a tribute to the first Lieutenant Governor of New South Wales in Australia, William Paterson....

by George Bentham

George Bentham

George Bentham CMG FRS was an English botanist, characterized by Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century".- Formative years :...

. The specific epithet commemorates the collector George Maxwell

George Maxwell

George Maxwell was a professional collector of plants and insects in Southwest Australia. The botanical specimens he obtained were used to make formal descriptions of the region's plant species....

's contribution to the botany of the region, including this plant's type specimen.