Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Daviesia leptophylla
Common name
Narrow-leaf bitter-pea, Slender bitter-pea
Family
Fabaceae
Where found
Forest, woodland, and shrubland. Widespread.
Notes
Broom-like shrub to 2 m tall. Branchlets angular, ribbed, hairless, rigid, occasionally leafless towards the tips. 'Leaves' scattered, 0-11 cm long, 0-10 mm wide, upper surface convex, margins slightly curved down, surfaces dull yellow-green; venation conspicuous, longitudinal, with a stronger vein near each margin, tips tapered to a point or blunt. Flowers pea shaped, with 5 petals, 2 joined together to form the keel, Standard petal yellow with a maroon infusion surrounding a central intense yellow bilobed spot in the centre, 4.5-6.5 mm long, 6-7 mm wide, keel dark red. Flowers in 5-10 flowered clusters, 1–4 clusters together. Flowers Winter to Summer.
Hybridises with Daviesia latifolia and Daviesia mimosoides.
All species of Daviesia have 'leaves' that taste bitter, and hairless triangular pods.
All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Daviesia~leptophylla (accessed 3 April 2021)
Description partly based on Crisp, M.D., Cayzer, L., Chandler, G.R. & Cook, L.G. (2017), A monograph of Daviesia (Mirbelieae, Faboideae, Fabaceae). Phytotaxa 300(1): 117-120, Fig. 49
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