Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Hovea speciosa

Flowers and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra

Common name

A hovea

Family

Fabaceae

Where found

Forest, mainly on sandstone. Coast, ranges, and the eastern part of the tablelands, north from Morton National Park.

Notes

Shrub to 3 m tall. Stems densely hairy with brown, grey-brown or sometimes partly blackish, simple hairs. Leaves alternating up the stems, 2.5–6 cm long, 3–11 mm wide, arched mostly nearer the margins, midrib shallowly recessed, margins curved to rolled down, tips rounded to somewhat pointed or sometimes notched, mucro short or absent; upper surface green, dull, hairless except for scattered hairs along the midrib, veins slightly raised and thickened; lower surface completely covered by thick, cream, golden, or golden-brown curled hairs, with scattered long, spreading hairs interspersed, midrib hairs dense, orange-brown to brown, scattered, also with long spreading hairs, venation pattern faintly shown by the darker coloured hairs along the veins. Flowers pea shaped, with 5 petals, 2 joined together to form the keel. Standard petal 8–10 mm long, mauve, with a yellow marking. Flowers in 2-3 flowered clusters. Flowers in August–September.

PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Hovea~speciosa (accessed 19 January, 2021)