Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Bossiaea obcordata

Flowers and leaves. Photographer Don Wood, near Nowra

Flowers and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, near Bundanoon

Common name

Spiny bossiaea

Family

Fabaceae

Where found

Dry forest, woodland, and heath, often on sandstone. Coast, ranges, and tablelands. Occasionally on the Western Slopes.

Notes

Shrub to 2 m tall. Ends of the branchlets spiny. Stems more or less flat to cylindrical, ridged, hairy, at least when young. Leaves alternating up the stems, mostly 0.3-0.6 cm long, 2-6 mm wide, more or less hairless, tips rounded or notched. Flowers mostly 8-10 mm long, pea shaped, with 5 petals, 2 joined together to form the keel. Front of standard petal yellow with a red flare, back red, wings purplish brown throughout or sometimes dirty yellow at the tip, keel pinkish grading to darker red. Flowers Winter to Spring.

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

Description partly based on Thompson, I.R., (2012) A revision of eastern Australian Bossiaea (Fabaceae: Bossiaeae). Muelleria 30(2): 145-146