Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Daviesia suaveolens
Common name
Scented bitter-pea
Family
Fabaceae
Where found
Dry forest, woodland, and rocky ridges. Ranges between the Kings Highway and the Snowy Moutains Highway.
Notes
Shrub or olive-like tree to 6 m tall. Branchlets cylindrical, slightly angular, hairless. 'Leaves' scattered, 3-10 cm long, 4-17 mm wide, dark green to slightly glaucous, sometimes the upper surface a different colour from lower surface, the lateral veins arising from the midrib in pairs, tips blunt or rounded. Flowers very fragrant. Flowers pea shaped, with 5 petals, 2 joined together to form the keel, standard petal yellow, sometimes with faint red markings surrounding an intense yellow bilobed marking at the centre, 6.5-9 mm long, 9-10 mm wide. Keel pale yellow flushed pink toward the tip. Flowers in 3-6 flowered clusters with no or a very short common stalk, the clusters sometimes paired. Flowers Spring.
All species of Daviesia have 'leaves' that taste bitter, and hairless triangular pods.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Daviesia~suaveolens (accessed 4 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): 109-111, Fig. 45
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