Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Bossiaea scolopendria

Common name

Broom bossiaea

Family

Fabaceae

Where found

Dry forest and heath, often on sandstone. Coast and ranges north from Bermagui Nature Reserve.

Notes

Erect shrub to 1.5 or more tall, rhizomatous. Stems to about 25 mm wide, flat, winged, hairless to sparsely hairy. Leaves only appearing on juvenile growth or regrowth, usually reduced to scales 0.1-0.2 cm long, 0.8-1.2 mm wide. Flowers 10-15 mm long, pea shaped, with 5 petals, 2 joined together to form the keel. Standard petal yellow with a red flare inside, reddish grading to purplish outside, wings purplish brown throughout or at least in the half towards the tips, keel pale greenish yellow to red. Flowers Winter to Spring.

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

Description partly based on Thompson, I.R., (2012) A revision of eastern Australian Bossiaea (Fabaceae: Bossiaeae). Muelleria 30(2): 161-162