Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Bossiaea ensata

Flowers on stem. Photographer Don Wood, Booderee National Park, Jervis Bay Territory

Flowers on stems. Photographer Russell Best, near Mallacoota, Vic

Common name

Sword bossiaea

Family

Fabaceae

Where found

Dry forest and heath. Coast. Ranges and eastern edge of the tablelands north of Ulladulla.

Notes

Shrub, sprawling or to 1.5 m tall, rhizomatous. Stems flat, hairless or sparsely hairy. Leaves alternating up the stems, a few on regrowth or juvenile growth, almost round, to 1.5 cm long, usually reduced to scales 0.06-0.2 cm long, 0.6-1 mm wide. Flowers mostly 6-11 mm long, pea-shaped, with 5 petals, 2 joined together to form the keel. Standard petal yellow with a red flare inside, red outside, wings yellow, sometimes tinged red, keel pale greenish yellow, sometimes tinged pink at the tip. Flowers Winter to Spring.

Rare Vic.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Bossiaea~ensata (accessed 5 January, 2020)