Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Bossiaea riparia

Common name

River leafless bossiaea

Family

Fabaceae

Where found

Grassy areas in dry forest or woodland. South of Nerriga. Tablelands, ACT, the mountains to the west, and Kosciuszko National Park.

Notes

Low-growing erect or sprawling shrub to 1 m tall, more or less hairless. Stems to about 5 mm wide, cylindrical, or flattened in cross section, winged. Leaves reduced to scales 0.07-0.15 cm long, 0.3-0.5 mm wide. Flowers 6-12 mm long, pea shaped, with 5 petals, 2 joined together to form the keel. Standard petal yellow with a red flare inside, reddish to purplish or reddish grading to yellow on the back, wings yellow or brownish red, keel reddish to purplish. Flowers single or several together. Flowers Winter to Summer.

All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.

Rare Vic.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Bossiaea~riparia   (accessed 5 January, 2021)

Description partly based on Thompson, I.R., (2012) A revision of eastern Australian Bossiaea (Fabaceae: Bossiaeae). Muelleria 30(2): 164-165