Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Bossiaea kiamensis
Common name
A bossiaea
Family
Fabaceae
Where found
Dry forest and heath, on exposed rocky sites, and in moist habitats. Coast, ranges, and the eastern part of the tablelands, mainly between the Kings Highway and the Illawarra Highway. Occasionally elsewhere.
Notes
Shrub, prostrate or to 4 m tall. Stems mildly compressed at first, becoming cylindrical, hairy with white hairs, becoming hairless. Leaves opposite each other, 1-3.5 cm long, 2-7 mm wide, upper surface hairless, lower surface sparsely hairy to hairless, paler than the upper surface, tips with a short point. Flowers usually 10-12 mm long, pea-shaped with 5 petals, 2 joined together to form the keel. Front of standard petal yellow with a red flare, back generally red, wings light purplish brown with red streaks,, keel red to dark brown. Flowers Spring.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Bossiaea~kiamensis (accessed 5 January, 2020)
Description partly based on Thompson, I.R., (2012) A revision of eastern Australian Bossiaea (Fabaceae: Bossiaeae). Muelleria 30(2): 127-128
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